Rwanda: former mayor guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity

Arusha, November 17, 2011 – The ICTR delivered its sentence in the case of Gregoire Ndahimana.

“The chamber � found Ndahimana guilty of genocide and extermination by aiding and abetting as well as by virtue of his command responsibility over communal police in Kivumu,” the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said in a statement.

Ndahimana, 59, had pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail after the tribunal dismissed an additional charge of complicity in genocide.

He was mayor of Kivumu when, in April 2004, when the Nyange church was bulldozed and 2,000 Tutsis who had been seeking refuge there were killed.

The court said the scale of the operation that led to the destruction of Nyange church and the murder of thousands of Tutsis reflected a broad co-ordination by local and religious authorities.

“Though this did in no way exonerate the accused, it did, however, suggest that his participation through aiding and abetting may have resulted from duress rather than from extremism or ethnic hatred,” the court said.