The trial involving Genocide suspect, Sadi Bugingo, who was arrested in Norway, last year, is scheduled to begin today in Oslo.Information acquired by The New Times indicates that 106 people have been lined up to testify in the trial that will last three months.The prosecution has the biggest number of witnesses, with 80 while the defence has 26. At least 21 witnesses will be flown to Norway to testify, another group of 80 witnesses will give their testimonies via videolink at the Supreme Court in Kigali. Bugingo is alleged to have supervised killings, coordinated attacks and distributed food rations to Interahamwe militia in the former Kibungo Prefecture (now Ngoma District), during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.“The trial starts today. The first day is for the prosecution; from Wednesday to Friday Bugingo will be testifying. Then the witnesses from Rwanda will start the week after,” a source from Oslo told The New Times.The source added that Bugingo has pleaded not guilty since he was first charged by the police in 2008 and that he has since been under investigation.“The investigation is the first major one in Norway after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda … He risks 21 years in prison (maximum sentence there) because Genocide wasn’t part of the legal code in Norway in 1994. He is tried for murder and participation in murders, and not on a genocide charge. But that is the formal side of it, in practice it might change,” added the source.Bugingo has lived in Norway since 1999, where he was working as a cleaner at a large shopping mall in Bergen before his arrest. His family lives in Norway.Some prosecution witnesses who will be testifying in the case allege that Bugingo is responsible for the killings at the Economat Général of Kibungo Diocese, at Kibungo Baptist Church and at Kibungo Hospital.He is also accused of participating in the murders of Tutsi in various areas, including Birenga, Zaza, and Nyakarambi all in eastern Rwanda.“I first knew Bugingo in 1990 when he started making public statements. I personally heard him saying that the day the Hutus unveil their anger, the Tutsis will see the danger that will befall them,” one of the key witnesses, (names withheld for security purposes), told this paper.He recalled that Bugingo used to attend political meetings and rallies of the extremist Coalition pour la Défense de la République (CDR) a far-right Hutu Power political party and those of Mouvement Républicain National pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MRND).“I remember he was among the first people who mounted the first roadblock at the entrance of Kibungo town…This continued for a period of time up to 1994 when the Genocide started. Bugingo took part in several attacks that claimed many lives but is also responsible for massive looting during the Genocide and these are some of the things I am going to prove to the court in Norway,” the source said.He stated that he put aside other responsibilities to go to Norway to testify because Bugingo is responsible for the burden of four families he was left to take care of. “Bugingo is responsible for the death of the men that headed these families. This is the reason why I am going there. I want justice to be done,” he said.Another prosecution witness who says he was close to Bugingo’s family before the Genocide, said the suspect used to drive a white Nissan pickup to Kibungo Hospital with militias on board.“Bugingo always remained in the vehicle while the militias dragged people to be killed. He could not talk to anyone apart from his militias and the militias also say that he only talked to them most while giving them orders,” he said.Another female witness who was working at Kibungo Hospital at the time, remembers Bugingo as someone who abruptly turned into a commander of the death squads hunting down everyone.“My husband and children were hiding in the hospital and they were among those who were being hunted. I remember a certain man who was also called Bugingo was killed right at the gate of the hospital by Bugingo’s gang as he looked on,” she said.Back in Oslo, Bugingo will be the first person to be tried for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi under Norwegian law.According Norwegian authorities, Bugingo’s trial will be conducted in courtroom 250 at Oslo Central Court, the same courtroom where mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik was tried.Bugingo will be the second person to stand trial in the 250 courtroom, after Breivik, who last year killed 69 of his compatriots, mostly youth, and was last month sentenced to 21 years in prison.This, according to the Norwegian law, is the maximum sentence that can be handed to any convict.Rwandan authorities are comfortable with Norway trying Bugingo.According to the Head of the Fugitive Tracking Unit, Jean Bosco Siboyintore, Rwanda sent an indictment to Norway asking for the arrest of Bugingo but did not request for an extradition.“Norwegian authorities investigated and found compelling evidence… we are happy that the trial is beginning, and that is all I can say regarding this case,” Siboyintore told The New Times yesterday.Bugingo is the second Genocide fugitive arrested in Norway, after Charles Bandora, who was also arrested last year as he tried to enter Oslo Airport on false papers, masquerading as one Frank Kamwana, a Malian national.Norwegian courts and the European Court of Human and People’s Rights have all ruled in favour of sending Bandora to Rwanda, a decision that will have to be approved by Norway’s Ministry of Justice.Other Genocide suspects have also been tried and convicted in the Nordic countries. They include Francois Bazaramba, a former clergyman in the Southern Province, who has lost an appeal against a life sentence.Another one, Sylveire Ahorugeze, risks being extradited to Rwanda although he is challenging the decision at the European Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in Sweden.
