The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in Arusha, Tanzania has dedicated the entire month of November to a trial involving five Rwandans (now referred to as Maximilien Turinabo et al.) who are accused of using bribery and coercion to secure reversal of witness testimonies in a case of a Genocide mastermind convicted by the UN tribunal.
The genocidaire whose conviction was upheld by an Appeals Chamber and which the suspects were trying to reverse, is Augustin Ngirabatware.
Ngirabatware is a former Minister of Planning who is serving a 30-year prison sentence rendered by the Appeals Chamber of the MICT.
On first instance, he had been sentenced to 35 years by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for direct and public incitement to commit genocide, instigating genocide and aiding and abetting genocide.
About the suspects
The five suspects have been identified as; Maximilien Turinabo, Anselme Nzabonimpa, Jean de Dieu Ndagijimana, Marie Rose Fatuma and Dick Prudence Munyeshuli.
Turinabo was, at different stages during the Ngirabatware case, a Defence contact person in the Gisenyi area.
Nzabonimpa was the Bourgemestre of Kayove Commune, Gisenyi Prefecture before mid-1994, while Ndagijimana was a teacher and school administrator in the Gisenyi area during the same period.
Fatuma is the widow of Augustin Ngirabatware’s half-brother Édouard Byukusenge, also known as "Cenge”.
Munyeshuli served as a defence investigator on a number of cases before the ICTR and the Mechanism. From approximately August 2015 until January 2018, he was an investigator on the defence team of Augustin Ngirabatware.
Ngirabatware will also face two charges; contempt of court and incitement to commit contempt of the ICTR.
The five face charges of contempt of court, incitement to commit contempt and knowing violation of court orders and interfering with the administration of justice.
The Mechanism Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in a statement that the suspects, directly and through others, offered bribes and exerted pressure to influence the evidence of protected witnesses in the Ngirabatware case.
In a statement, Brammertz said that the five sought to have Ngirabatware’s final conviction overturned by interfering with the administration of justice, directly and/or through others, including by pressuring, offering bribes to, and otherwise influencing protected witnesses.
In addition, or in the alternative, the Prosecution alleges that they incited others to commit contempt by interfering with protected witnesses.