Brothers guilty of genocide
2005-06-29 09:22
Brussels - A Brussels court on Tuesday found two Rwandan businessmen guilty of war crimes and murder linked to the 1994 genocide in their country.
After 10 hours of deliberations, the jury found Etienne Nzabonimana, 54 guilty of 56 charges. His half-brother Samuel Ndashyikirwa, 43, was found guilty of 23 out of 24 of the charges he faced, the Belga news agency reported.
The charges included war crimes and murders committed in the Kibungo region of southeast Rwanda where 50 000 people were massacred in April 1994.
Witnesses say that the two Hutu businessmen "supervised" several attacks, including one on a market, and others against churches. Several hundred people were killed in the massacres, which were carried out using machetes, grenades and rifles.
Throughout the trial, the accused, arrested in Belgium in 2002, denied any role in the genocide.
Nzabonimana claimed that he never left his house during the Kibungo massacre. In his last words to the court he said that he had "no, no, no role in this tragedy".
Ndashyikirwa, while denying culpability, did express regret over his inability to save friends and neighbours from the massacre.
Prosecutor Alain Winants challenged their denials in court, stating that the two men had helped the Hutu Interhamwe militia during the massacres, including by handing out weapons and beer to them and lending them vehicles to travel in the southeast region of Kibungo.
Dozens of Rwandans testified against the pair.
There was no comment from the defence team following the verdict but the joy was evident among the other interested parties in court.
"This verdict allow me to throw off my victim's status, to carry out my mourning, to forget sadness and to pardon if I am asked, And I hope that I am asked," said one woman who lost relatives in Kibungo.
This was the second trial in Belgium dealing with the Rwandan genocide.
In a landmark June 2001 trial, the court sentenced four Rwandans, including two nuns, to between 12 and 20 years in jail for their roles in the genocide.
The grounds for such trials lie on a 1993 law which allows Belgian courts to judge suspects accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, regardless of where the alleged acts were committed or the nationality of the accused or victims.
The United Nations estimates that 800 000 people, mainly the ethnic minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed throughout Rwanda in the 1994 genocide.
The latest trial followed a 10-year investigation by Belgian authorities.
Belgium is the former colonial power in Rwanda, which achieved independence in 1962.
Sentencing will take place after more deliberations and pleading from the defence due to start Wednesday. The pair could receive life prison terms.