The trial in Belgium of Genocide suspect Fabien Neretse, 71, which started early November came to a close late Thursday night when a court found him guilty of Genocide, murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

24 hours later, a 12-person jury at the Cour d'Assises de Bruxelles, the country's Supreme Court for criminal matters, sentenced him to 25 years in jail.

This was not the first Genocide trial in the Kingdom of Belgium, but it was the first time that a criminal prosecution and conviction was based on a law punishing genocide, introduced there in 2017.

The trial of Neretse was the fifth trial held in Brussels connected to the 1994 Genocide.

Previous trials including that of two catholic nuns, found guilty, in 2001, of participating in the massacre of more than 7,600 people at the Sovu convent in Butare, were based on a universal jurisdiction punishing people for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Initially, three trials; the one of Neretse, Emmanuel Nkunduwimye and Ernest Gakwaya were to happen at the same time.

On October 9, the court decided to first hear Neretse’s case separately.

The rationale was that the other two’s charges were over killings committed in Kigali alone yet Neretse’s crimes were also committed in his home region, formerly Ruhengeri, now Musanze.

Members of Interahamwe militia

The two other trials are now expected to start towards the end of next year.

So, who are these two other suspects and what are they accused of?

Nkunduwimye and Gakwaya are, among others, suspected of having been active members of the Interahamwe militia, something they deny. Formed around 1990, the Interahamwe was the youth wing of the MRND, the then-ruling party which spearheaded the 1994 Genocide. The two men were arrested in early 2011 in Brussels.

Gakwaya

Gakwaya, alias Camarade, 44, who now holds Belgian nationality, is accused of committing murders and rapes of Tutsi girls and women.

He was arrested on March 23, 2011 in Belgium and charged with Genocide, war crimes and rape.

Gakwaya, the sixth child in a family of seven children, was born in Satinsky Commune, Gisenyi Prefecture, now Rubavu District, on June 27, 1975.

His father, Jean Chrisostome Gakwaya- Ndayitabi, died in Kenya in 1988. His Tutsi mother, Catherine Niyonteze, died in Brussels in 2012. His parents are known to have been a respected couple who resided in the quartier des Belges neighbourhood of Nyamirambo, in Kigali.

Gakwaya is said to have had three daughters, all born in Belgium, before he separated from their mother, Christelle Umugwaneza. He has another partner, Cassilde Uwera, with whom they have another young daughter. He is reported to have another daughter who lives in Uganda with her mother.

Gakwaya had his primary education in Kigali and later studied basic electronic engineering in highschool, from 1993 to 1994 at the former Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO Kibungo) in Ngoma District, Eastern Province.

In Belgium he first got a part-time job as a heavy trucks driver before landing a permanent one. 

Nkunduwimye

Nkunduwimye, alias Bomboko, 60, was also arrested in March 2011. He was charged with Genocide and war crimes.

He was born in Gakenke District in an area previously known as Commune Murambi on January 4, 1959. His father, Jean Makuba, died in 1990 while his mother, Marie Mbonyizina, passed on in 1994. He had 15 siblings in total since his father had eight other children with another wife.

Nkunduwimye lives in Belgium with his wife, Vertha Nyiranshuti, and two young children.

Reports indicate that he had a daughter who died with her mother in the Genocide.

After primary school, in Murambi, he studied languages for two years in high school.

He once worked as a taxi driver and later worked for a firm known as Soprotel that provided transport services for Hotel Méridien employees. Later he worked for his rich in-law, Silas Majyambere, a businessman. When the latter fled the country in 1989, Nkunduwimye continued to work for his boss but later, in that same year, started his own export-import company called MAKIMEX (import-export and transport).

In 1993, he set up a garage business called Centre-Ville-Auto, in partnership with two men – Jean Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka, alias Zuzu, and Jean-Bosco Mutaganzwa.

When he arrived in Belgium, in 1998, he did various part-time jobs, including working for a cleaning firm called Bruxelles-Propreté, in the Belgian capital.

He was once arrested but when released, in 2012, he worked for a food packing company, OMNIPACK, and later as a cab driver for a company called Taxi Walker.