Convicts in the FLN-MRCD terror case on Monday, January 31, presented the grounds for which they appealed against the verdict rendered by the High Court back in September last year. In total, 12 convicts appealed, and many of these were on Monday given a chance to individually express themselves during a hearing held at the Court of Appeal in Kigali. Appearing before the Court of Appeal, Callixte Nsabimana a.k.a Sankara, a former spokesperson of the FLN militia group, called for a more lenient sentence, as he showcased a number of mitigating factors, some of which related to his personal life. He decried the fact that the lengthy 20-year jail term denies him the opportunity to return to the Rwandan community, noting that he will be out of prison when he is 57-years old, which is a quite old age. He also implored the court to consider issues related to his health, saying that he suffers from ulcers and high blood pressure. In addition to this, he revealed that by the time he was arrested, he was planning to wed his South Africa-based fiancé, but as of now, he does not even know any information regarding the whereabouts of the love of his life. He once again stressed the fact that he collaborated with the high court by pleading guilty and providing information that helped in investigations. “I exposed the people who were supporting anti-Rwanda militias including foreign leaders as well as some Ugandan and Burundian officials. This means that they became my enemies who can harm me if they get any chance. So, I don’t have other options, except working with the Rwandan government, because it is the only way I can be secure,” he said. He also asked the judges to consider the fact that since childhood, he has lived a “sour” life, due to the fact that he is a survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of his parents and six siblings. Like he has previously done, he questioned the fact that there are a number of top military leaders of the FLN who were enrolled in rehabilitation programs, yet he – a mere spokesperson who never had anything to do with organising military operations – is looking at 20 years in jail. In response, prosecutors told the judges not to consider any of Nsabimana’s claims because they are “baseless.” “Being a person that was so much affected by the genocide against the Tutsi, he knows very well the disadvantages of war, and therefore, he should have been the last person to engage in such crimes,” said prosecutor Bonaventure Ruberwa. Ruberwa also dismissed Nsabimana’s argument that it is unfair for him to be in jail yet some top military officials of the FLN are being rehabilitated. “The fact that some people have not been prosecuted yet should not be a mitigating factor for the crimes that Nsabimana committed,” he said, adding that criminal liability is individual. The FLN is the militia outfit that was behind the 2018 and 2019 attacks in South-Western Rwanda, where at least nine unarmed civilians lost their lives, more others injured and property destroyed or looted.
