Rwanda abolishes death penalty

2007-07-26 22:22

Kigali - Rwanda has abolished the death penalty, a key step demanded by the international community to transfer genocide suspects to Rwandan courts, Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said on Thursday.

"The abolition of death penalty is effective from July 25, 2007," Karugarama said.

Abolishing the death penalty was one of the conditions set by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to allow the transfer of genocide suspects to the Rwandan judiciary.

The bill was initially put forward by President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front, approved by the cabinet at the beginning of the year and approved by parliament over the past two months.

As a result of the bill's promulgation, about 600 Rwandans should see their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

According to the United Nations, the 1994 genocide killed 800 000 in a few weeks, mostly from the Tutsi minority.

Offloading some of the less high-profile cases to Rwandan justice has become a necessity for the Tanzania-based ICTR, which is supposed to wind up all criminal proceedings by the end of 2008, 14 years after its creation.

- AFP