09.03.10 - ICTR/NSENGIMANA - PROSECUTION WILL NOT APPEAL NSENGIMANA ACQUITTAL

Arusha, March 9, 2010 (FH) - The prosecution will not appeal the acquittal of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the UN court says in its latest newsletter.

0 min 48Approximate reading time

This means that the judgment of the lower court, pronounced orally on November 17, 2009 and issued in writing on January 18, 2010, can be considered final.

"On 17 February 2010, the prosecution indicated that it did not intend to appeal Nsengimana's acquittal," the Newsletter reads.

Nsengimana was rector of the Christ-Roi College in Nyanza during the genocide in 1994.

In February 2009, the prosecution urged a life sentence for the Catholic priest accused of supervising the killings of ethnic Tutsis at his College. However, the Chamber considered the evidence brought against Nsengimana too shaky for conviction.

The defendant was acquitted on November 17.

The ICTR already has three other acquitted persons in its care whilst seeking a host country for them:  former Minister of Transport Andre Ntagerura, General Gratien Kabiligi and Protais Zigiranyirazo, a brother-in-law of the late president Habyarimana.

Other persons acquitted by the ICTR are former mayors Ignace Bagilishema and Jean Mpambara, who are now in France; Emmanuel Bagambiki, who lives in Belgium; and former Minister of Education André Rwamakuba, who joined his family in Switzerland.

ER/GF/JC

© Hirondelle News Agency