27.11.07 - ICTR/SIMBA - COURT OF APPEALS CONFIRMS SENTENCE OF 25 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SIMBA

27 November 2007 By

Arusha, 27 November 2007 (FH) - The court of appeals of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) upheld Tuesday the sentence of 25 years in prison rendered by the original trial judges in the case of Colonel Aloys Simba, a comrade-in-arms of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, Hirondelle Agency reported.

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The appeals court judges in addition confirmed his condemnation on counts of genocide and extermination (crime against humanity).

All grounds of appeal on the part of the colonel and that of the prosecution were dismissed in their entirety.

Simba was found guilty of having played a role in the massacres perpetrated in 1994 against Tutsis in different areas in the prefectures of Butare and Gikongoro, in southern Rwanda.

A retired officer at the time of the genocide, Simba exercised no official function but had been called to service of country in the role of civil defense in the two prefectures.

Born in 1938 in Gikongoro, the colonel had been an instrumental player in the July 5, 1973 coup d'état that brought then Major General Juvénal Habyarimana to power.

ER/PB/SL