Genocide suspect tried in Netherlands court

A Rwandan genocide suspect, Joseph Mpambara, went on trial Monday in the Netherlands charged with rape and murder during the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis. Prosecutors alleges that Mpambara was involved in atrocities including the massacre of Tutsis who had sought refuge at a church complex. According to the Associated Press, he is also accused of beating and hacking to death seven people dragged out of an ambulance, The crimes were allegedly committed in Mugonero in Kubuye, in Western Rwanda. The allegations against Mpambara came to light when he applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2006. Under Dutch law he can be tried for war crimes allegedly committed in another country because he was living in Netherlands at the time of his arrest. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted of the war crimes of murder, rape and torture. Genocide militias killed over a million people the genocide, which raged from April to July 1994. “Mpambara and others attacked the Seventh Day Adventist church in April 1994 armed with guns, clubs, machetes and grenades. Many of the refugees died in the attack,” Prosecutor Hester van Bruggen told the three-judge panel. Van Bruggen said Mpambara also raped three women, using a bayonet to rape one victim. He allegedly raped the other two women in a hospital ward before killing them with a knife. The 40-year-old Mpambara is also accused of subjecting a German doctor and his Rwandan wife and baby to psychological torture by threatening them at a roadblock in western Rwanda as they tried to flee the unfolding genocide. The couple is are seeking compensation from Mpambara, their attorney, Liesbeth Zegveld revealed. “They were told, ‘where do you want to die?”’ Zegveld told The Associated Press. Under Dutch law that applied at the time of the crimes, the maximum compensation the court can award is the equivalent of U.S. $925, according to Zegveld. She said money was not the German family’s motivation. “For them, it is more important to be able to take part in this process,” Zegveld said. At the opening of his trial at Hague District Court, Mpambara denied the charges. “I don’t agree with the accusations,” he told the Judges. However, John Bosco Mutangana, the head of the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit in Rwanda, told The New Times yesterday that the government expects the court to deliver justice because there is enough (implicating) evidence. “It is normal for any suspect to deny the charges but what matters is having enough evidence,” he said. “Dutch prosecutors visited Rwanda several times to gather evidence. Basing on the available evidence, we believe that justice will be delivered,” Mutangana said on phone. The trial is expected to take up to six weeks. Mutangana called upon other countries harboring genocide fugitives to either try them or extradite them to Rwanda. Dutch prosecutors wanted to charge Mpambara with genocide, but the District Court and an Appeals Court in The Hague both ruled that Dutch courts lacked jurisdiction. Prosecutors have appealed those decisions to the country’s Supreme Court, which is expected to deliver a judgment next week. Mpambara’s brother, Obed Ruzindana has been convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He is serving a 25 year prison term in Mali Ends

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Genocide suspect tried in Netherlands court