WESTERN PROVINCE RUSIZI—A row has erupted between Gacaca judges of Giheke sector and their coordinator over the sentence of embattled former Nyamasheke district executive secretary, Elizephan HabyarimanaHabyarimana was sentenced to 19 years in jail. At the centre of the controversy is coordinator Abou Huraira, who wants to retry Habyarimana, something judges say is a move aimed at exonerating the accused.Explaining the problem in a special meeting at Kamashangi cell office, Isha court president Jean Pierre Habimana said the coordinator was urging the court to reconsider the case.“The coordinator says the latter case is political and needs a lot of care,” Habimana said. “But we as Gacaca judges wonder how Habyarimana’s case is political and yet we know very well that his sentence was purely based on the true information we have that the latter killed several Tutsis at Shagasha tea factory during the 1994 Genocide” Habimana said in the meeting.The coordinator is likely to have gotten a bribe from the former executive secretary of Nyamasheke district though we don’t have enough evidence that he received it,” he said. “This man [Huraira] always defends Habyarimana by intimidating us [Gacaca judges].” Some say threats of expulsion have been given. Chaste Nkurunziza, vice-president of Gacaca in Isha says that, prior to Habyarimana’s sentence, the latter had wanted to bribe the judges with Frw1 million, but was refusedEnds
