NGOMA (Eastern Rwanda), 17 March 2008 (FH) - A local resident, Mr Francois Ruhumuriza, 48, was convicted in appeal filed before the semi-traditional Gacaca court of the Fukwe sector, Ngoma district, and sentenced to imprisonment of 15 years in absentia, reports Hirondelle Agency.
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe conviction was decided without possibility of work neither of general Interest (community work) nor of suspension of sentence, according to the presiding judge, Mr Pie Gakwenzire.<\/p>\n
Ruhumuliza was found guilty of all the counts of the indictment and was convicted for murders of Damascene Nsabagasani and Jean Nyagasaza, organizing meetings which prepared the genocide, criminal conspiracy and looting, he added.<\/p>\n
A month before his first instance trial in November 2007, Mr Ruhumuriza escaped from his prison in Kibungo, where he was held since 1997, a police source said.<\/p>\n
"Nevertheless, he was acquitted to everyone's surprise...probably because of corruption", the source added.<\/p>\n
During the appeal, five defence witnesses stated the integrity and the good behaviour of Mr Ruhumiliza during the 1994 genocide but their testimonies were tore down by the convincing evidence provided by the prosecution.<\/p>\n
According to IBUKA, the main association of genocide survivors, Ruhumuliza was still hiding but when arrested would have to serve his sentence.<\/p>\n
SRE\/PB\/MM\/SC
\n© Hirondelle News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NGOMA (Eastern Rwanda), 17 March 2008 (FH) - A local resident, Mr Francois Ruhumuriza, 48, was convicted in appeal filed before the semi-traditional Gacaca court of the Fukwe sector, Ngoma district, and sentenced to imprisonment of 15 years in absentia, reports Hirondelle Agency.<\/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-19911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n