ARUSHA, Tanzania – Colonel Tharcisse Muvunyi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting genocide.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Appeals Chamber sentenced the former military officer on Thursday. Trial Chamber III of the ICTR is made up of Judges Dennis C.M. Byron, Gberdao Gustave Kam, and Vagn Joensen. They found Muvunyi guilty of direct and public incitement to commit genocide after he gave a speech in May 1994 at the Gikore trading center.
“This message was very clear to us. We understood it to mean that all Hutus who had Tutsi spouses should surrender them to be killed if not they all lose their lives,” said a witness.
The ICTR, a UN-backed tribunal trying suspects in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, previously handed down a guilty verdict with a 25-year sentence in 2006. In 2008, the ICTR Appeals Chamber set aside the convictions and ordered a new trial.
“The chamber unanimously sentences Tharcisse Muvunyi to 15 years imprisonment,” Judge Byron said. “There is no reasonable doubt that in giving such a speech Muvunyi intended to incite the audience to commit acts of genocide.”
Muvunyi was arrested in February 2000 and will be given credit for the time he has already served. Until he is transferred to the State to serve the remainder of his sentence, he will be kept in the ICTR’s custody.
According to Muvunyi’s lawyer, William Taylor, he was not “prosecuted but persecuted.”
The ICTR is based in Arusha, Tanzania and has convicted forty-one suspects and acquitted eight.
For more information, please see:
AFP – Ex-Rwandan Officer Gets 15 Years for Inciting Genocide – 11 February 2010
All Africa – ICTR Sentences Col. Muvunyi to 15 Years for Genocide – 12 February 2010
Human Rights Education Associates – Former Rwandan Soldier Sentenced to 15 Years for Genocide – 12 February 2010
Relief Web – Rwanda: Muvunyi Sentenced to 15 Years After Retrial – 11 February 2010
