MP Mporanyi verdict today

HUYE – MP Théobald Mporanyi will learn of his fate today when Gacaca Court in Ngoma, Huye district will read its verdict. Mporanyi is accused of torturing Tutsi students, genocide and inciting people to commit Genocide at the National University of Rwanda in 1994. He was a student in the faculty of public health during the Genocide. Witness accounts allege that the legislator who was a member of the CDR political party was among a group of CDR members who tortured Tutsi students at the university after the death of the CDR President, Martin Bucyana. Court heard different verbal and written testimonies from former students and colleagues of Mporanyi. He denies all the charges saying that he was not at the university during the Genocide. “I left the university for my home in Cyangugu (current Rusizi district) towards the end of March - well before the Genocide. My conduct during the Genocide in this area is clear so there is no way I could have been a Genocide perpetrator at the university and fail to do the same in my home area,” he argued. The legislator told court that he came from a humble background, from a group of marginalised people in the current Nkombo Sector in Rusizi district. “There is no way I could have established myself as a leading voice during the Genocide at the university given my humble background,” he said, adding that he was not involved in any political party activity during the Genocide period. One witness, in a written testimony read during the trial described Mporanyi as ‘always smartly dressed, vocal and one who never left a meeting without expressing his opinion.’ Ends