The appeal case for the 25-year sentence handed to Genocide convict Fabien Neretse last December was heard by a Belgian court (Cour de Cassation) on Wednesday, April 29. Shortly after the hearing, Andre Martin Karongozi, a lawyer for the victims, told The New Times that a ruling will be made on May 27. The Attorney General has himself affirmed that Neretses appeal has no legal basis, Karongozi said. Karongozi however noted that defence lawyer Jean Flamme requested for 15 days to respond to the Attorney Generals conclusion. The hearing will resume on May 27. Last December, Neretse, 71, who was an influential member of the then ruling MRND party, was found guilty of Genocide, murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity, by the Brussels Assize Court. The MRND was the ruling party prior to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. He was prosecuted for the crime of Genocide and war crimes committed in Nyamirambo, Kigali, where he resided and Mataba, his native region, as well as elsewhere in Rwanda between April 6 and July 14, 1994. According to CNLG, Neretse called the genocidal army who executed 13 people in Kigali alone. In his native region of Mataba, Neretse created, armed and paid the Interahamwe militia. Earlier, he lived in Angoulême, the capital of the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. The name Neretse, The New Times has learnt, is a shortened version of Neretsabagabo, the name he was given as a child. When he arrived in France, three years after the Genocide, in 1997, he adopted another name – as most genocide fugitives do to elude capture – Nsabimana. Neretse claims to have left Rwanda in July 1994 and headed to former Zaire, now DR Congo, before going to the Central African Republic (CAR) and later joined his wife and children in France. His family arrived in France, earlier, in 1996. Sources say he acquired refugee status in France, in 1999. During the 1994 Genocide he was once the head officer of ACEDI Mataba, a secondary school based in Gakenke District, which he built earlier in 1989. He eventually became the leader of the Interahamwe militia in the area. He used his clout to organize killings of the Tutsi in Kigali, especially the murder of a Belgian citizen, Claire Beckers, as well as her Tutsi husband, Isaie Bucyana, and their daughter Katia in April 1994, in Kigali.
