Swedish police Thursday night arrested a Genocide fugitive, Stanislas Mbanenande, as he arrived at Bromma Airport. He had been handed a life sentence in absentia by a Gacaca court. A UN employee supposedly working in Chad and Liberia, Mbanenande was convicted in 2009 on four counts related to his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. he allegedly led a militia gang that massacred people in Bisesero and Ruhiro in the Western Province where over 50,000 people were killed. He is also said to have personally taken part in murders. “Police and prosecution officials from Sweden came to Rwanda and discussed with us about his case. We shared with them important evidence and requested for his indictment,” John Bosco Siboyintore, the head of the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit in the National Prosecution Authority told the Sunday Times. Siboyintore said that due to Mbanenande’s position as a citizen of Sweden, the prosecution of Sweden expressed interest to try him, something which is contradictory to law principles considering that he was already tried and found guilty in Rwanda. “Under international laws, a person cannot be tried twice for the same case; the charges he was found guilty of are those he committed in Rwanda when he was still a Rwandan citizen. So this is something we are going to discuss with the Swedish prosecution,” Siboyintore said. ivan.mugisha@newtimes.co.rw
