Gatikabisi, a Tutsi and a survivor of genocide, was tried by the gacaca court of Nyakabanda, in Kigali.
He had tried to silence Mariam Kandenzi, who accused him of complicity in the murder of her daughter during genocide, the President of the Court, Philbert Munyandinda told Hirondelle Agency.
According to the same source, Gatikabisi admitted having said to Mrs. Kandenzi: "You are persecuting me because of the death of your daughter. You believe that her blood is worth more than that of all the Tutsis killed during the genocide?".
Inspired by the traditional village assemblies during which wise men of the village settled disagreements while sitting on the grass (gacaca, in Kinyarwandan), these semi-traditional courts have the role of emptying the heavy case load of the 1994 Tutsi genocide, which, according to Kigali, cost a million lives.
They can issue punishment of up to life in prison in isolation, the maximum sentence in Rwanda after the abolition of capital punishment in 2007.
SRE/ER/NI/GF
© Hirondelle News Agency
