Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
24 September 2008
Arusha — A United Nations Court Wednesday sentenced to a life imprisonment a former Rwandan lawyer, Simeon Nshamihigo, 49, for his role in the 1994 genocide.
Delivering a judgement Wednesday, the presiding Judge, Justice Dennis, said that Nshamihigo as a Deputy Prosecutor of Cyangugu Prefecture, south-western Rwanda, "was in a prominent public position of trust, yet he exhibited zeal in the perpetration of these grave crimes," adding that "because of his position in the justice system, he was expected to hold the rule of law and principles of morality."
The three-bench judges found Nshamihigo guilty of all four counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, saying that some witnesses testified that because of the accused's position " they believed that they would suffer no legal consequences for their preparation in the genocide and widespread killings and looting," reports Hirondelle Agency.
Justice Byron, who is also president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), added: "Nshamihigo promoted an environment of impunity for mass atrocity...he traveled distances to supervise numerous massacres, as well the number of locations demonstrating his zeal in the commission of his crimes."
The Chamber found that Nshamihigo guilty of his involvement in the killings of ethnic Tutsis in his native region, including ordering several roadblocks to intercept and kill Tutsis. "He supervised the effective manning of those roadblocks and that several Tutsi were killed by the Interahamwe at the road bocks," said Justice Byron.
The accused was arrested in 2001 at the ICTR premises after he was discovered working at the United Nations court under a false name. Nshamihigo was detained after a witness at one of the trials recognized him and revealed his true identity as one of the alleged organizers of the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis.
Nshamihigo was working at the international tribunal as an investigator for the defence team of a former military commander who was a close ally during the slaughter and is now convicted, Samuel Imanishimwe.
Nshamihigo was detained by tribunal security staff and then handed over to immigration officials in Tanzania, where the international court is sitting, after it was discovered he was using an assumed name and a false passport. He was going by the name of Sammy Bahati Weza and claiming to be a Congolese citizen instead of a Rwandan.
Although Mr Nshamihigo was not employed directly by the UN, all of those on trial at the tribunal are declared indigent and the salaries of the defence staff are paid by the court. As a result, the tribunal was supposed to have checked the former prosecutor's credentials and background.
The Rwandan government has in the past complained that several men implicated in the genocide were employed by the court's defence teams.
The arrest of Mr Nshamihigo had raised fresh questions about security at the tribunal. In February, 2001, Hassan Ngeze, a Rwandan newspaper editor already convicted for genocide, was discovered to be running a website from his cell and using it to denounce the judges hearing his case.
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