The government has commended the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) for rejecting the request for early release by convicted Genocide mastermind Théoneste Bagosora. The 79 year-old genocidaire had filed for early release to the President of IRMCT, indicating that, if released, he would like to stay in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or live in Mali. However, Judge Carmel Agius, President of IRMCT, on Thursday, ruled that the convict shall remain behind bars because “the extremely high gravity of Bagosora’s crimes weighs very heavily against his early release.” The President of IRMCT also emphasized that Bagosora offers no indication that he has accepted responsibility for the crimes of which he was convicted, nor are there any signs that he has reflected critically, or expressed any remorse or regret. In a tweet, the Ministry of Justice applauded the decision. “The Government of Rwanda welcomes the decision of the President of the IRMCT of 1st April 2021, denying the early release of Bagosora Theoneste,” reads the tweet. “We concur with the reasoning and motivation of the decision of President Judge Carmel Agius,” it adds. Judge Agius also said that in arriving at the decision, he also considered the concerns advanced by the government of Rwanda, which opposed the early release due to the gravity of the crimes for which Bagosora was convicted. The government further submitted that granting the plea “would cause irreparable harm to the victims of Bagosora’s crimes.” Arrested in March 1996 in Cameroon and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 1997, Bagosora was an ex-FAR Colonel and was one of the masterminds of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi that claimed one million lives. Bagosora was the highest authority in the Ministry of Defence and exercised control over the army of the genocidal regime that worked with Interahamwe to slaughter Tutsis. A core member of the Akazu, the inner circle at the heart of the preparation of the Genocide, Bagosora was key in forming the genocidal government. Among other crimes, he bears superior responsibility for the systematic killing of prominent personalities and opposition political figures on the morning of April 7, 1994. They include the then Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Joseph Kavaruganda who was the President of the Constitutional Court, Frédéric Nzamurambaho who chaired the Parti Social Démocrate and was Minister of Agriculture, and many others. Bagosora was on December 18, 2008, found guilty of genocide, murder, extermination and persecution as crimes against humanity, violence to life and outrages upon personal dignity, as well as rape. He was, therefore, sentenced to life imprisonment. However, on December 14, 2011, the Appeals Chamber, then presided by controversial Judge Theodore Meron, reduced his sentence to 35 years of prison. He has been serving the sentence in Mali since July 1, 2012.
