In case you haven’t noticed, the National Public Prosecution Authority is appealing the acquittal of a big genocide suspect, Wenceslas Twagirayezu, whom court on Thursday last week ordered freed from prison where he has been held on charges of crimes of genocide, including murder and extermination as crimes against humanity. Prosecution’s course of action – lodging an appeal – is to be expected, in a case that’s also served to once again underscore the independence of the Rwandan judiciary. ALSO READ: Prosecution to appeal against acquittal of Genocide suspect Twagirayezu Contrary to the claims of naysayers – who like to impugn the integrity of the country’s judicial system any chance they get – the judges reached their own conclusion, following a rigorous exercise of due process for the suspect. Still, it is a no-brainer that Prosecution cannot be satisfied with the ruling, given the enormity of what Twagirayezu is accused of. Furthermore, Prosecution no doubt will lean heavily on a dissenting judge’s opinion, that there indeed is sufficient evidence to convict. Throughout Twagirayezu’s trial – following extradition from Denmark late in 2018 – eyewitnesses have vouched he was a participant in acts of genocide as a member of the notorious CDR political party at the height of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The 56-year-old Twagirayezu – formerly a teacher in a vocational school in Gisenyi, now Rubavu District – is said to have participated in several killings in the town between April 7 and 9, 1994. These massacres, in which the suspect is said to have been a ringleader, took place mainly between the areas of Busasamana and Gacamena. There, the Tutsi were slaughtered in thousands. ALSO READ: Twagirayezu ruling: Why one judge dissented during acquittal verdict It is no wonder that those familiar with the case were shocked last week to hear Presiding Judge Timothee Kanyegeri, of the Nyanza-based High Court Chamber for International Crimes (HCCIC), rule that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove Twagirayezu’s role in the crimes he is accused of. During the hearing of the case, witnesses for Prosecution included one Etienne Gasenge, himself a participant in the genocide at the same time and place (as he testified) with Twagirayezu. Gasenge said that on the seventh of April, they started the killings in Mudende and that on the following day, they proceeded to Busasamana. The witness says Twagirayezu was with them as they dumped bodies in a pit, and that he (Twagirayezu) had an R4 gun. Another witness, this one a genocide survivor, Jean Ruzibiza, says he saw the suspect, on April 8, at a school in Mudende where many had fled the massacres. Ruzibiza says Twagirayezu was among the Interahamwe militias that attacked the school that day, and that he had a gun, and a spiked club of the kind the militias had baptized “nta mpongano y’umwanzi” – one of the crudest, most sadistic killing instruments of the Interahamwe. Yet another witness, this one code-named DTA, said that on April 10, he saw Twagirayezu seemingly asking for the identity documents (which in those days was for the purpose of establishing an individual’s ethnicity) of two women, and one young man who were trying to cross into the Congo, then Zaire. DTA testified that when the three people couldn’t produce their documents, the defendant killed them on the spot. The witness continued that Interahamwe dumped the bodies of the victims in a pit under an avocado tree, in a place called Munyazogeye. Well, two of the judges – including presiding judge Kanyegeri, and Fidele Nsanzimana – sitting in on the case did not find this, and similar evidence of enough preponderance to convict Wenceslas Twagirayezu. Basically, the two judges chose to acquit on the grounds that the Prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the suspect actually was in Gisenyi at the time of the crimes he is accused of. The presiding judge said court reached its decision based on, among other things, documents the suspect produced, claiming they showed he was in Zaire on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of April, 1994. Additionally, the judges said, they “identified inconsistencies in several testimonies from different witnesses.” Apparently, to the judges, this cast doubts on the accuracy of certain facts presented against the defendant. Even as a layman, this raises a few questions. What evidentiary standards would satisfy the court? Would the justices expect the witnesses, people discussing chaotic, terrible events that took place three decades ago, to have been taking notes to present tightly collaborating evidence – in the unlikely event they would survive – as part of testimony in some future court case? The dissenting judge in the case, Blaise Ngabire on his part found the witness’ testimonies far more credible, first questioning Twagirayezu’s claims that he was in Zaire during the three days the witnesses pin him as having been in the Gisenyi area, in Busasamana, Gacamena, and Mudende. Justice Ngabire notes that when Twagiramungu was seeking asylum in Denmark years ago, he told immigration officers in the European country that between January, and July 1994 he was in Gisenyi. “He (the defendant) only started making claims that he was in Zaire when prosecutors were questioning him in 2018,” Ngabire said. The judge further noted that when Twagirayezu was in Denmark, answering immigration officials, he said he supported Interahamwe militias, but then claimed “he did not support their acts when they started killing people.” This, according to Ngabire’s opinion, indicates that when the Interahamwe started killing, the suspect was around. Ngabire wasn’t done shredding the suspect’s claims. “The witnesses Twagiramungu presented (to support claims he was in Zaire) are his friends from DR Congo during the Easter of 1994,” he remarked, then added: “It is not understandable how he went for Easter holidays without knowledge of his family members, or colleagues at work.” It seems there are as many holes in Twagirayezu’s case as a sieve! One thing about the man’s acquittal, which Prosecution seems to have more than enough ammunition to overturn, isn’t unique, among suspects that have been extradited from Europe and other places overseas to Rwanda. In 2018 Leopold Munyakazi, who had been extradited from the US to face genocide charges and later received a life sentence after a court convicted him of crimes of genocide, walked out of prison after his conviction was overturned. Let no country hold onto Rwandan genocide suspects, on the pretext that they won’t receive a fair trial, or that the courts are not independent, because those claims don’t hold up to scrutiny, at all.
