ARUSHA - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Friday sentenced former mayor of Bicumbi, Juvenal Rugambarara to eleven years in prison.

The sentence came after Rugambarara entered a plea bargain with the UN-tribunal’s prosecution by pleading guilty to a single count of extermination as a crime against humanity.

The trial chamber, presided over by Asoka de Silva, said the sentence shall run as of the date of the judgement and that Rugambara would be entitled to credit for the time he spent in detention since his arrest.

He was arrested in Uganda on August 11, 2003.
According to a release on the Tanzania-based tribunal’s website, it took into consideration the aggravating and mitigating circumstances before reaching the verdict.

The aggravating factors include the magnitude of the deaths of Tutsi civilians in Bicumbi commune as a result of the crime for which Rugambarara had pleaded guilty to.

"The mitigating factors include remorse expressed by the accused and his public expression of regret which the Chamber described as sincere,” the release reads in part.

In July this year, the Rugambarara entered the guilty plea following negotiations with the prosecution and subsequently his indictment was revised with the withdrawal of eight of the nine charges against him.

The sentencing of Rugambarara makes the number that of cases that the ICTR has completed to 34 cases of which 29 are conviction and five acquittals.

The tribunal is under instructions by the UN Security Council to wind up its activities by the end of next year for trials on first instance while appeals will carry on until 2010. 

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