17.02.09 - RWANDA/GACACA - GENOCIDE CONVICT ARRESTED AFTER BEING ON THE RUN FOR 2 YEARS

Kigali, 17 February 2009 (FH) - Martin Habimana, convicted of genocide and who has been in hiding for two years in Kigali district, has been arrested at his residence on Sunday, reports Hirondelle Agency.

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In 2007, Habimana was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the semi-traditional gacaca (pronounced gatchatcha) court of the Cyivugiza sector, in the Rwandan capital.

The jury found him guilty of complicity in several murders in the neighbouring sector of Nyamirambo.

Whereas he was always present throughout the entire trial, but on the day of the judgement he went missing.

Since then, he had been hiding in his district of Nyamirambo,

"He was arrested Sunday at his residence in Nyamirambo, with the assistance of local authorities", Concorde Nsengiyumva, a judge at the gacaca court of Cyivugiza confirmed to Hirondelle Agency.

The name of Habimana almost seemed forgotten when the judges discovered last year that he was also wanted for rape during the 1994 genocide.

The police and the local government then launched a manhunt.

Rape during the genocide is punishable with life imprisonment, the maximum sentence in Rwanda.

SRE/ER/MM/SC

© Hirondelle News Agency