Arusha, May 08, 2012 (FH) \u2013The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Tuesday upheld a 30-year imprisonment sentence imposed by lower court to the former Rwandan businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\"The Appeals Chamber affirms the sentence of 30 years\u2019 imprisonment imposed on Gaspard Kanyarukiga by the Trial Chamber to run as of this day,\u2019\u2019 said Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson.<\/p>\n
On November 1, 2010, the lower court convicted Kanyarugika of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity for planning, with others, the demolition of\u00a0Nyange church (Kivumu commune, western Rwanda), on April 16, 1994. About 2,000 Tutsis, who had taken refuge in\u00a0 the church were killed.<\/p>\n
Kanyarukiga had appealed both conviction and sentence. However,\u00a0according to the judgment, he\u00a0failed to demonstrate that the Trial Chamber violated his fair trial rights, and erred in its assessment of defence of alibi.<\/p>\n
The Appeals Chamber categorically stated that it dismissed Kanyarukiga\u2019s appeal in its entirety alongside that of the prosecution which included claim that the Trial Chamber erred in assessing the gravity of Kanyarugika\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n
The businessman is not the only Rwandan\u00a0convicted for Nyange church\u00a0massacre. The parish's priest,\u00a0Athanase Seromba, is currently serving a life in prison sentence. Clement Kayishema, former prefect of Kibuye, has been\u00a0 imprisoned for the remainderof his life and Gr\u00e9goire Ndahimana, former mayor of the commune, was sentenced to a 15-year jail term. He has filed an appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kanyarukiga\u00a0was arrested in South Africa on July 16, 2004 and transferred to Arusha three days later.\u00a0His trial took off on August 31, 2008.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
NI\/GF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, May 08, 2012 (FH) \u2013The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Tuesday upheld a 30-year imprisonment sentence imposed by lower court to the former Rwandan businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga.<\/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-24413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n