ICTR Appeals Chamber Upholds Sentences for Genocide

The Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has upheld 25-year jail terms imposed on a former top military officer and a landowner for genocide in the massacres that killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during a 100-day period in 1994.  The Appellate Chamber dismissed the appeal by Lieutenant Colonel Ephrem Setako (who was also head of the defense ministry’s division of legal affairs) upholding his conviction for genocide for ordering the killings at Mukamira military camp in 1994.  The Chamber also confirmed his convictions for extermination as a crime against humanity and for violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons as a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions that govern the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Chamber also upheld the 25-year jail term imposed on Yussuf Munyakazi, a former farmer and landowner, for genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity based on his role in the killings of Tutsi at Shangi and Mibilizi parishes on 29 and 30 April 1994, respectively.

(Adapted from a UN Press Release) (mew)