The Nyarugunga Primary Court in Kicukiro District on Thursday remanded Leopold Munyakazi, a genocide suspect recently deported from the USA. Munyakazi was remanded for 30 days pending investigations, citing concerns that he may flee the country and the weight of his alleged crimes. The former university professor, who has evaded justice for the past 12 years while in the United States, appeared before the Nyarugunga court on Tuesday where he was charged with five counts related to the Genocide against the Tutsi. The crimes which were committed during and after the Genocide include; committing genocide, complicity to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination and genocide negation. Reading the verdict, the judge averred that court could not accord Munyakazi bail as requested since his alleged crimes are very serious and that there was overwhelming incriminating evidence pinning him. The court cited as an example the case of a one Gertrude Kamagaju, whom Munyakazi himself accepts to have hidden at his house in Kayenzi (currently in Kamonyi district), but later willingly surrendered her to be killed by Interahamwe militia. Kamagaju was killed by a certain Gabriel Murekezi, a genocide convict who is currently serving his jail term and is one of the witnesses prosecution has lined up to pin him. The judge also gave credence to the different submissions by prosecution during the pre-trial hearing, emphasising that he was a flight risk. Munyakazi was deported from US last month, ending a deportation battle that had lasted over a decade in the state of Maryland where he worked as a university lecturer. He was once a detained over same genocide crimes before he was released on bail before he managed to sneak out of the country in 2004.
