ICTR: Convicted Priest transferred to Mali

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has transferred to Mali a Catholic priest convicted for Genocide, Emmanuel Rukundo, where he will serve the remainder of his sentence. In 2009, the tribunal sentenced Rukundo to 25 years in jail for attempted rape and Genocide that included killing people who had sought refuge in a seminary. However, a year later the Appeals Chamber reduced it to 23 years. “Yes, Father Rukundo was transferred to Mali but I don’t have the full details of when he was transferred,” Danford Mpumilwa, ICTRs officer in Charge of Communications told The Sunday Times yesterday. ICTR Spokesperson, Roland Amoussouga, could not readily be reached on phone yesterday, but agencies on Friday quoted him as saying that the transfer follows a decision taken by the Tribunal’s President on May 23 this year. Rukundo will join 14 ICTR convicts in Mali who include; former editor of the extremist Kangura newspaper, Hassan Ngeze, Ferdinand Nahimana, a historian and co-founder of the extremist radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) and former Rwanda Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda. Seven other convicts are currently serving their sentences in Benin while Michel Bagaragaza is imprisoned in Sweden. Rukundo was arrested in Switzerland in July 2001 and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda detention center two months later. The tribunal’s Statute requires that imprisonment shall be served in Rwanda or any of the States on a list of States which have indicated to the UN Security Council their willingness to accept convicted persons, as designated by the ICTR. So far, Rwanda, Mali, Benin, Sweden, Swaziland, France, and Italy are the only countries to have signed with the ICTR an agreement on the enforcement of sentences. Ends