Rwanda Tribunal Convicts Pastor and Physician Son of Genocide and Other Crimes

On February 19, 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Gérard Ntakirutimana, 45, a medical doctor practicing at the Mugonero Adventist hospital of genocide and of crimes against humanity (e.g., murder) and his father, Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 78, a senior pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Mugonero of aiding and abetting in genocide. Trial Chamber 1 of the ICTR, composed of Judge Erik Mose (Norway), presiding, and Judges Navanethem Pillay (South Africa) and Andrésia Vaz (Senegal). The Chamber sentenced Pastor Ntakirutimana to ten years of imprisonment and his son to imprisonment for twenty five years. The Chamber gave credit in both cases for the time the defendants had already served on remand in the U.S. and Arusha…[more]