Athanase Rutabingwa, lead defence counsel for General Gumisiriza told Hirondelle Agency that in the same court two other officers who pleaded guilty for the offence and sentenced to eight years in prison each-- Captains John Butera and Dieudonné Rukeba--had their sentences reduced to five years.
The first judgment was delivered on August 24, 2008.
The lawyers of both convicts in the first judgment rendered on August 24, 2008 criticized the sentences for not having granted sufficient weight to the guilty plea of their clients and pleaded in favour of a reduced sentence.
Among killed clergymen - almost all Hutus - were the Archbishop of Kigali, Vincent Nsengiyumva, the Bishop of Byumba (Northern Rwanda) Joseph Ruzindana and the Bishop of Kabgayi (central Rwanda), Thaddee Nsengiyumva, then President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Rwanda.
All the four defendants were arrested on June 11, 2008, after, according to the Rwandan army, joint investigations of the Rwandan Public Prosecutor and Prosecutor of the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
NI/SC/GF
© Hirondelle News Agency