The appeal hearing of the FLN terror case came to a conclusion on Monday, February 21, and its verdict will be read on the 21st of next month. The appeal trial started on January 20, with all sides – (the prosecution, some convicts and the victims) protesting a number of decisions rendered by the High Court Chamber for International and Cross Border Crimes (HCCICC) which handled the case at first instance back in September last year. The prosecutors’ arguments were based on a number of claims, including the claim that the HCCICC absolved some defendants of certain charges such as creating an illegal armed group, financing terrorism, and joining an illegal armed group. In addition, they argued that while rendering its verdict, the HCCICC reclassified some crimes. Here, for instance, counts like murder as an act of terrorism, kidnap as an act of terrorism, armed robbery as an act of terrorism among others were reclassified as one crime — committing terrorism and taking part in it. The prosecutors also argued that the penalties given to the convicts were too lenient in comparison to the crimes they committed. On the other hand, the 13 convicts who appealed said the HCCICC failed to consider mitigating circumstances that should have led to lesser jail terms for them. Here, Callixte Nsabimana, Herman Nsengimana, Cassien Bizimana, Shaban Emmanuel, Jean Damascene Nsabimana, Innocent Ntibiramira, Jean Claude Byukusenge argued that they had pleaded guilty before the HCCICC, but they were still slapped with heavy penalties. Some claimed that they were convicted without sufficient evidence, and others argued that they should be given chance for rehabilitation and reintegration into the community, just like a number of militiamen had been treated in the past. In regard to compensations, a number of defendants argued that they should not be accountable for such, since they did not take part in the incursions on Rwandan soil, in which up to 9 civilian lives were lost, many more injured and property destroyed. The victims of the attacks also appealed, saying that the compensations awarded to them by the HCCICC were based on the judges’ consideration, not the evidence provided. The HCCICC judges awarded damages of just over Rwf400 million to the victims, instead of the more than 1.6 billion that they had asked for. During Monday’s hearing, all the sides presented their final submissions to the Court of Appeal. Here, the prosecutors asked the judges not to consider the defendants’ appeal, except for Jean Damascene Nsabimana who was convicted of conspiring and encouraging others to commit terror, yet he had not been charged on this count. Among other things, the prosecutors urged the court to convict Paul Rusesabagina, Marc Nizeyimana and Callixte Nsabimana of committing terrorism, not just participating in it. Specifically, they argued that Rusesabagina should be convicted of financing terrorism and creating an irregular armed group in addition to the crimes he had been convicted of by the HCCICC in September last year. They also called for the conviction of Callixte Nsabimana, Cassien Bizimana, Nsengimana, Emmanuel Iyamuremye, Marcel Niyirora, Andre Kwitonda, Emmanuel Nshimiyimana, Jean Cretien Ndagijimana, Theogene Hakizimana, Felicien Nsanzubukire and Anastase Munyaneza of creating an irregular armed group, in addition to the crimes they were convicted with in the first instance trial. The prosecutors called for life imprisonment for Nizeyimana, Paul Rusesabagina, Callixte Nsabimana 25 and 20 years for Nsengimana, Iyamuremye, kwitonda, Nshimiyimana, Hakizimana, Ndagijimana, Nsanzubukire, Munyaneza, Nikuzwe, Shaban, Mukandutiye and Ntabanganyimana; and 15 years for Niyirora. However, they asked that the court maintains the jail terms of Cassien Bizimana, Jean Damascene Nsabimana, Shaban Emmanuel, Jean Berchmans Matakamba, and Innocent Ntibiramira.
