10.02.09 - GACACA/RWANDA - GACACA: LIFE IN PRISON FOR FORMER RWANDAN MAYOR

Rusizi, 10 February 2009 (FH) - Justin Napoleon Mubiligi, a former Mayor of Kamembe, south-western Rwanda, was sentenced last Thursday to life in prison by the semi-traditional Gacaca Court of the Nkanka sector, in Rusizi district, reports Hirondelle Agency.

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He can appeal the judgment.

The former administrative official was convicted for planning genocide, organization, execution and supervision of the genocide, incitement to commit the genocide, missions and massacres of Tutsis who had taken refuge at the Kamembe communal office and the parish of Mibilizi.

About 15 overpowering and precise prosecution testimonies were heard, according to a judge, who requested to remain anonymous.

A former chief of the communal police of Kamembe testified that the former mayor had given him the order to let the militiamen continue the massacres of Tutsis.

Three former militiamen, who have confessed, accused the former administrative official of having given them, on several occasions, the order to kill Tutsis.

According to people who followed the course of the trial, Mubiligi, who never recognized the reality of the genocide in Kamembe, supports that "it was right for people to kill each other here and there".

The former mayor was arrested and imprisoned in Kamembe, in November 1994. In July 2005, he was acquitted, at the end of a controversial trial, by a traditional court.

The police arrested him, the same day, at his residence while he was on the point of fleeing the country, with a passport and a visa, a police source hinted Hirondelle.

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© Hirondelle News Agency