The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will deliver its last appeals judgement in the Butare case on 14 December 2015.
The case involves: Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the former Minister of Women’s Development; her son, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, who was a student in 1994; Sylvain Nsabimana, who served as Préfet of Butare from 19 April until 17 June 1994; Alphonse Nteziryayo, a lieutenant colonel in the armed forces who was appointed Préfet of Butare on 17 June 1994; Joseph Kanyabashi, the long-serving Bourgmestre of Ngoma commune from 1974 through July 1994; and Élie Ndayambaje, a former Bourgmestre of Muganza commune who was reappointed to his post as Bourgmestre on 18 June 1994.
The accused were, on 24 June 2011, variously convicted of crimes of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for their role in crimes commited against Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
Their sentences ranged from 25 years to life imprisonment.
The ICTR is the first ever international tribunal to deliver verdicts in relation to genocide, and the first to interpret the definition of genocide set forth in the 1948 Geneva Conventions. It also is the first international tribunal to define rape in international criminal law and to recognise rape as a means of perpetrating genocide.
The ICTR delivered its last trial judgement on 20 December 2012 in the Ngirabatware case.
The United Nations Security Council established the ICTR to “prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighbouring States, between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994”. The Tribunal is located in Arusha, Tanzania, and has offices in Kigali, Rwanda. Its Appeals Chamber is located in The Hague, Netherlands.
