ARUSHA - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has transferred nine convicted prisoners from the UN detention facility in Arusha to Cotonou, Benin, to serve the remainder of their sentences.

A ICTR press statement sent to The New Times yesterday indicated that the transfer which occurred over the weekend follows instruments signed in May by the ICTR President Dennis Byron.

The prisoners transferred are; Georges Rutaganda, Gerard Ntakirutimana, Juvenal Kajelijeli, Emmanuel Ndindabahizi.
Others are; Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Aloys Simba, Juvenal Rugambarara, Athanase Seromba and François Karera.

The convicts, some of whom are serving life sentences, arrived in Cotonou on Saturday and were received by the Benin prison authorities.

After the hand-over, the prisoners were moved to Akpro-Missérété prison at Port-Novo.

Apart from Benin, other countries that accepted to receive ICTR convicted prisoners are; Rwanda, Mali (which has fifteen prisoners), Swaziland, France, Sweden and Italy.  

Transferred convicts at a glance

Rutaganda was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1999 while Kajelijeli was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment in December 2003.

Ntakirutimana was sentenced to 25 years in February 2003 and is due for discharged from prison in October 2021 while Ndindabahizi was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2004.

Barayagwiza, who was among the founders of the notorious Radio Television des Mille Collines (RTLM) was sentenced to 32 years imprisonment in December 2003.

Simba was in December 2005 sentenced to 25 years imprisonment and Rugambarara to 11 years in November 2007.

Seromba and Karera were in March 2008 and December 2007 respectively sentenced to life imprisonment.

Despite the transfer agreement that was signed between the ICTR and the Rwandan Government to have some of the suspects brought to Rwanda to complete their sentences, none has been transferred.

The tribunal, which was established by the United Nations to try key masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, is due for closure next year and by then no convict is supposed to remain at the Tanzanian facility. 

Ends