\nArusha, 09 October, 2007 (FH) - Abbot Emmanuel Rukundo denied Tuesday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to have tried, during the 1994 genocide, to rape a Tutsi woman in Kabgayi, in the center of the country.
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\nThe priest, 48, is charged with genocide, assassination and extermination. He has pled not guilty.
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\n"I did not see her during that period", defended the catholic priest, keeping himself, in accordance with a measure of the chamber, from revealing, in open session, the identity of the woman.
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\nLed by his lawyer Aïcha Condé, he declared that he "had not tried to have a non authorized sexual intercourse" with the Tutsi woman in question. "I said to you that I did not meet her", he repeated three times.
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\nThe clergyman also denied "having made advances" to the woman.
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\nAccording to the indictment, the priest would have dragged the young woman to an area of the Saint-Leon Seminary in Kabgayi to try to rape her, "on a date between 15 May and 3 July 1994".
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\nRukundo, who was a military chaplain in 1994, explained that he did not have a room at the Saint-Leon Seminary and that he did not have access to the areas of the establishment.
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\nTwo other catholic priests, Athanase Seromba and Hormisdas Nsengimana, are being held by the ICTR.
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\nNsengimana is still on trial, like Rukundo; while Seromba was sentenced in first instance to 15 years in prison.
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\nER\/PB\/MM <\/p>\n
© Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, 09 October, 2007 (FH) - Abbot Emmanuel Rukundo denied Tuesday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to have tried, during the 1994 genocide, to rape a Tutsi woman in Kabgayi, in the center of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-19240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n