ICTR prosecution seeks life sentence for Hategekimana

Prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Wednesday requested that the court hands a life sentence to former military officer, Lt Ildephonse Hategekimana, for Genocide. The accused, a former officer in the defeated former Rwandan Armed Forces (Ex-FAR), is charged with Genocide or complicity in Genocide, murder and rape as crimes against humanity. Agencies quote William Egbe, a prosecution attorney, as having told court that the evidence adduced by several witnesses and exhibits before the court demonstrated that the accused was directly responsible in the killings of numerous people in an extreme brutal manner. “Taking into consideration the gravity of the offences, individual and superior responsibilities, absence of mitigating factors, the prosecution proposes the most appropriate sentence for the defendant to be imprisonment for the remainder of his life for each count found guilty,’’ Egbe said. The prosecution concluded its case in May last year after presenting 20 witnesses and the defence rested its case on October 7 after fielding the same number of witnesses. The indictment pins Hategekimana on massacres at Ngoma parish, Matyazo Primary School, Matyazo dispensary and at Benebikira Convent in Butare, Southern Province, between April and May 1994. Hategekimana, who commanded the military camp of Ngoma, Butare, (now in Huye district), is part of the five accused that the ICTR Prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, had sought in vain to transfer to Rwandan courts. Ends

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ICTR prosecution seeks life sentence for Hategekimana