05.05.09 - RWANDA/GACACA - GACACA: 15 JUDGMENTS RENDERED IN ABSENTIA FOR GROUP TRIAL

Kigali, 5 May 2009 (FH) - A gacaca court in Kigali delivered, in less than 10 days, 15 judgments in absentia in a group trial involving more than 20 defendants, reports Hirondelle Agency.

The sentences which vary between 19 years in prison and life imprisonment, the maximum sentence in Rwanda, have been rendered since 26 April by the gacaca court of Cyivugiza, according to Concorde Nsengiyumva, a member of the bench.

Among the convicts sentenced to the maximum sentence, was Julienne (the file does not mention another name, according to Nsengiyumva), one of the three women prosecuted in the case.

On 26 April, she was found guilty of planning and organization of the genocide, within a crisis committee in Nyamirambo (a district of Kigali), and complicity in the murder of several people in Cyivugiza, according to the verdict.

At the beginning, the trial involved about 50 defendants, but 27 of them were transferred to other gacaca courts.

The law, however, allows the right convicted in absentia to file for an appeal when they present themselves.

The gacaca cases are scheduled to wrap up next month.

SRE/ER/MM/SC/GF

© Hirondelle News Agency

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