Judge Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), on Thursday, April 1, issued a decision denying early release to genocide convict Théoneste Bagosora. Arrested in March 1996 in Cameroon and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 1997, the ex-FAR Colonel was on December 18, 2008 found guilty of genocide, murder, extermination, persecution as crimes against humanity, violence to life and outrages upon personal dignity, as well as rape. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, on December 14, 2011, the Appeals Chamber, then presided over by controversial Judge Theodore Meron, reduced his sentence to 35 years of prison. He has been serving the sentence in Mali since July 1, 2012. On March 6, 2019, Bagosora filed a petition for early release to the President of IRMCT. He indicated that, if released, he would like to stay in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or live in Mali. Normally, every convict is eligible to be considered for early release once they have served at least two-thirds of their sentence. Bagosora served the period in question by June 2019. However, the President of the Mechanism considers other criteria before granting the early release. The criteria among others include the gravity of the crime or crimes for which the prisoner was convicted, the prisoner’s demonstration of rehabilitation and taking responsibility for their crime or crimes, and any substantial cooperation of the prisoner with the prosecution. While announcing the verdict on Bagosora’s plea, Judge Agius said that the convict has not at any point taken responsibility for the crimes he was convicted of. “Bagosora offers no indication that he has accepted responsibility for the crimes of which he was convicted, nor are there any signs that he has reflected critically, or expressed any remorse or regret,” he said in the verdict statement. “To the contrary, all I see in Bagosora’s submissions are arguments aimed at minimising his responsibility for the crimes he committed in 1994,” he added. The Judge also emphasized that “the extremely high gravity of Bagosora’s crimes weighs very heavily against his early release.” Meanwhile, while consulting Rwanda on the early release request of Bagosora, the country informed Judge Agius that it opposes the petition “in light of the gravity of Bagosora’s many offences.” The government further submitted that granting the plea “would cause irreparable harm to the victims of Bagosora’s crimes.” Before Judge Agius assumed office of the Mechanism in early 2019, Rwanda’s opinion would be ignored as far as releasing genocide perpetrators convicted by ICTR or reducing their sentences were concerned. His predecessor Meron, who also presided over the Appeals Chamber of the UN-backed ICTR before it was taken up by the Mechanism, acquitted Genocide masterminds on appeal, despite convictions on first instance by the Trial Chamber. For instance, in 2016, he granted early release to two convicted Genocide masterminds; Ferdinand Nahimana and Father Emmanuel Rukundo who had been incarcerated in Mali. Nahimana was the co-founder of hate outlet, Radio Television des Mille Collines (RTLM).
