26.11.09 - RWANDA/GACACA - LIFE SENTENCE FOR A FORMER JUDGE FOUND GUILTY OF GENOCIDE

Kigali, November 26, 2009 (FH) - A former Rwandan judge, André Bimenyimana, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in jail by a rehearing Gacaca court in Kigali, after being found guilty of genocide.

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A deputy prosecutor in 1994, Bimenyimana was sentenced for "illegal detention of firearms, installation and supervision of roadblocks where Tutsis were killed in Cyahafi and Kimisagara", two sectors of Kigali.

Sentenced for the same facts in 2008, the defendant was acquitted on appeal. The plaintiffs had then filed for a rehearing trial.

After the genocide, Bimenyimana, 61, became a lawyer and a member of the Rwandan Bar. Having only pleaded a few cases, he was arrested and incarcerated in 1997.

SRE-ER/GF

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