The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will deliver its verdict in the case of Gaspard Kanyarukiga in May this year. In 2010, Kanyarukiga, a former businessman from the former Kivumu Commune (Western Province), was convicted of genocide and extermination, for planning, with others, the demolition of a church in the Western Province where about 2,000 Tutsi had taken refuge died. Through his lead counsel, David Jacobs, the accused requested the Appeals Chamber to set him free or significantly reduce the 30-year-imprisonment sentence the lower court imposed if the conviction is upheld. However, last year, the Prosecution insisted that the Tribunal increase the sentence imposed on the former businessman for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Prosecutor Steffen Wirth said that Kanyarukiga participated significantly in the commission of the crime.“The Appeals Chamber should find that the Trial Chamber committed an error and increase the sentence imposed,” said. Kanyarukiga was arrested in South Africa on July 16, 2004 and transferred to Arusha three days later. His trial begun in 2008.
