Kicukiro Primary Court on Monday sent genocide suspect Beatrice Munyenyezi on a 30-day remand, saying there is reasonable ground to suspect her to have committed the crimes for which she is being prosecuted. Munyenyezi, 51, was deported from the United States after completing a 10-year sentence there, having been convicted of crimes related to immigration fraud. Last week, Munyenyezi was charged with counts including committing genocide, planning of genocide, complicity in genocide, incitement to commit genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and complicity in rape. Prosecution said that she committed the crimes in Butare Prefecture, which the current Huye district. The prosecutors noted that Munyenyezi was active at various roadblocks in Butare during the genocide, where she took part in checking identification documents of travelers in order to single out the Tutsi, whom she handed to the Interahamwe to be killed. The women among them were raped before they were killed. The prosecutors also said that Munyenyezi herself took part in the killings, and presented a testimony of a witness to pin her to this. One of the witnesses, as cited by prosecution, pins Munyenyezi on establishing a roadblock in Mukoni area (Butare) near Hotel Ihuriro that was owned by her mother-in-law Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. According to the witness, one day, a Catholic nun was intercepted at the same roadblock, but Munyenyezi noticed that she was Tutsi and said; “I know you, don’t waste my time.” Moments later, a car belonging to Nyiramasuhuko showed up, and took the nun away to be killed. Another witness (cited by prosecution) said they saw Munyenyezi supplying food to the Interahamwe militiamen that were stationed on roadblocks in Butare. In her defence, she said the accusations against her are fabricated since when the Genocide took place she was new in the Butare and therefore, the people that are testifying against her didn’t even know her. She said that she was born in Byumba Prefecture and it is where she studied from and only moved to Butare when she got married to Arsene Shalom Ntahobari, the son to Nyiramasuhuko. Her lawyers, Gatera Gashabana and Pierre Celestin Buhuru urged court to release their client on bail urging that there was no reasonable ground for their client to be remanded. They also urged that she was sick and should therefore be released so she gets medical attention. However, in a bail ruling held on Monday, May 10, the presiding judge said that there was reasonable ground for her to be suspected of having committed the crimes for which she is being prosecuted. Thus, she sent her on a 30-day remand as the trial continues. The judge also dismissed the defendant’s claims that she has health issues that would be exacerbated by the prison condition, saying that she did not present evidence to justify this. Both Munyenyezi’s husband Ntahobari and her mother-in-law, Nyiramasuhuko, are serving a 35-year sentence handed to them by the now-closed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda over genocide crimes.
