The High Court Chamber for International Crimes (HCCIC), on Thursday, January 11, acquitted Wenceslas Twagirayezu, a 56-year-old man who was being accused of participating in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The former teacher at College Baptiste Gacuba II in Gisenyi (current Rubavu District), was being pinned on participating in several killings that took place on April 7,8 and 9 in different places in Gisenyi including at Busasamana and Gacamena areas where many Tutsi perished.
He was extradited from Denmark in 2018 following an indictment and a subsequent arrest warrant that was issued by the Rwandan prosecution.
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Despite his acquittal, one of the three judges on the bench dissented despite being outweighed by his colleagues in ruling that the prosecutors&039; case against him lacked sufficient grounds to establish beyond reasonable doubt that he indeed participated in the said attacks.
Among their findings, the judges highlighted that the prosecution failed to prove that the suspect was in Rwanda on the dates these killings occurred.
Additionally, they identified inconsistencies in several testimonies from different witnesses, casting doubt on the accuracy of certain facts presented against him.
Under the principles of law, any doubt created in a case presented by the prosecutor leads to an acquittal.
Dissenting voice
However, Judge Blaise Ngabire dissented, saying there were enough grounds to declare him guilty. Here, he noted that the court shouldn’t have considered Twagirayezu’s claim that he was not in Rwanda on April 7, 8 and 9.
During the hearing of the case, Twagirayezu presented various pieces of evidence that placed him in DR Congo during this period, claiming he had travelled for the Easter holidays. This was supported by testimonies from his acquaintances who told the court that they were with him in the neighbouring country.
However, Judge Ngabire cast doubt on the claims, saying the court’s decision seems to be more bent towards the defendant’s claims and did not pay enough attention to counter arguments against them.
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Here, the judge noted that Twagirayezu himself, when he was seeking asylum in Denmark years ago, told immigration officers that between January and July 1994, he was in Gisenyi, Rwanda.
"He didn’t say that from the end of March to April 9 he was in DR Congo for Easter holidays. He only started making such claims when he was being interrogated by prosecutors in 2018,” the judge said.
Justice Ngabire added that during Twagirayezu’s interactions with the Danish immigration, he said he supported the Interahamwe but he did not support their acts when they started killing people.
"This means that when the Interahamwe started the killings, he was around. It is undoubtedly known that the killings, during the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, started on April 7,” the judge noted.
The dissenting opinion also cast doubt on the validity of the witnesses that supported Twagirayezu’s alibi.
"The witnesses that Twagirayezu presented are his friends from DR Congo who say he was with them on April 7, 8 and 9 in DR Congo. It is not understandable how he went for Easter holidays without the knowledge of his family members or colleagues at work," the judge said in his opinion.
In addition, the judge argued that Twagirayezu never presented any travel documents to the court to back his claims that he travelled on the said dates.
Twagirayezu was seen in attacks
The dissenting judge further challenged the claim that Twagirayezu’s purported travel to DR Congo absolved him of the role in the Genocide. According to him, someone can travel to DR Congo and return the same day because Gisenyi is a border area.
He also highlighted that his counterparts on the bench did not consider some witness testimonies due to "minor inconsistencies" in some of the testimonies by prosecution witnesses which he attributed to time-lapse.
He added that the witnesses can also forget some facts because they did not pay a lot of attention to every detail of Twagirayezu’s personality in 1994, because they did not know that they would be required to testify against him dozens of years later.
Though all witnesses agreed on the fact that the defendant was a teacher in 1994, some did not agree on the school in which he taught and the political party to which he subscribed.
Justice Ngabire argued that such should not be taken as serious flaws that would render their testimony inadmissible to the court.
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Among some of the witnesses who testified against Twagirayezu is one Etienne Gasenge, a man who also played a role in the Genocide. He said that on April 7, they started to carry out killings in Mudende areas, and on April 8 they went to Busasamana. He noted that Twagirayezu was with them at Gacuba 2 as they dumped bodies in a pit and had an R4 gun.
Jean Ruzibiza, a survivor of the Genocide, said he saw Twagirayezu around 8am on April 8 at a school in Mudende where he had fled. He said the defendant was among the militia men who attacked the school on that day and had a gun and a stick known as "Nta mpongano y’umwanzi.”
Besides, Judge Ngabire also argued that even if it were true that Twagirayezu was not in Rwanda on April 7, 8 and 9, it does not mean that he did not commit genocide on later dates.
A witness code-named DTA said that on April 10, he saw Twagirayezu seemingly asking for identity documents from two Tutsi women and a young man who were trying to cross to DR Congo. He was holding a gun and stick, the witness said.
When they couldn’t find the documents, he killed them. With the support of militiamen, the victims were buried under an avocado tree in a place called Munyazogeye, according to DTA.
Prosecutors to appeal
The National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) said it will appeal against the acquittal of Twagirayezu.
In a statement on Thursday, the NPPA said it was "not satisfied with the court decision.”