Rwanda: Court Sentences Top Genocide Suspect to Life in Prison

The International Crimes Court in Rwanda on Thursday sentenced Ladislas Ntaganzwa to life in prison for his role in the genocide, in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.

The 58-year-old Hutu was convicted for crimes that include Genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and rape as a crime against humanity.

The court session to sentence him took place in the Nyagisozi sector, Nyabihu district Southern province where he reportedly committed the crimes

Ntaganzwa who was arrested in the eastern Congo city of Goma in 2015 and transferred to Rwanda had been on the run for 21 years.

He has been one of the top most-wanted fugitives of the genocide against the Tutsi and had a $5m bounty on his head by the United States of America.

Of the 9 fugitives, two have been arrested and one confirmed dead while the other six who include Protais Mpiranya, Fulgence Kayishema, Charles Sikubwabo, Aloys Ndimbati, Ryandikayo, and Phénéas Munyarugarama are still at large.

Prosecution said Ntaganzwa orchestrated and led a massacre of thousands of Tutsi in Gasasa Hill, killing of fleeing Tutsi in Nkakwa sector, Tutsi killings in Maraba sector, killings in Nkomero Trading Centre, Kigembe commune and for ordering rape.

According to ICTR’s indictment between about 14 and 18 April 1994 Ntaganzwa participated in the planning, preparation and execution of over 20,000 Tutsis in Cyahinda parish.

The indictment adds that on 15 April, 1994 Ntaganzwa, armed with a gun, transported gendarmes in a vehicle, while Hutu civilians and Burundian refugees he had incited earlier arrived on foot and surrounded Cyahinda parish to prevent the Tutsis from escaping, the indictment says.

At the parish he addressed the Tutsi, using a megaphone and told them to lay down their weapons, the indictment said.

He then gave the order for the massacre to begin, “whereupon the gendarmes and communal police shot at the crowd of Tutsis killing and harming many, while the Hutu civilians and Burundian refugees armed with machete and knobkerries also attacked, killed and harmed Tutsis including those who tried to escape from the parish,” the indictment said.

He directed the attack by giving instructions through the megaphone including directions as to who should be killed; and personally shot into the crowd of Tutsis and killed five Tutsis.

Ntaganzwa reportedly returned to the parish on 16 and 17 April to encourage the militia to kill the Tutsi but on the 18th he came with men from the military who opened fire with automatic weapons at the Tutsi for the final assault.