First category of the suspects of the Rwandan genocide

Introduction

After the genocide of Tutsi and the massacres of the opponents Hutu of 1994, the new Rwandan authorities were in front of a new problem of justice: in addition to the fact that the number of the magistrates and lawyers was dramatically reduced (either that because of their political affiliation or " ethnique" , those had been massacred; maybe that because of their collaboration with the old authorities and their participation in the genocide, they had fled abroad), the number of suspects was, him, extraordinarily high (more than one hundred of thousands of imprisoned people). Very quickly, material impossibility to carry out a traditional legal treatment of all these files was essential. It was thus decided to treat on a hierarchical basis the gravity of the crimes and offenses made during the genocide and to release four categories of suspects.

1st category

the person that its criminal acts or its criminal participation arrange among the planners, the organizers, the instigators, the supervisors and the picture framers of the crime of genocide or crimes against humanity; the person who, acting as position of authority at the national, provincial level or of district, within the political parties, of the army, the religious confessions or the militia, committed these offenses or encouraged the others to make them; the murderer of great reputation which was distinguished in the medium where it resided or everywhere where he passed, because of the zeal which characterized it in slaughters where excessive spite with which they were carried out; the person who made the infringement of rape or the acts of torture sexual.

The crimes committed by the suspects of the 1st category are the only liable ones to the capital punishment. However, since 1994, although Rwandan justice pronounced several hundreds of times this sentance, it was applied only once (to 24 people in 1998), and will not be it probably more: one can say that there exists a kind of moratorium implicit because, inter alia, of impossibility for many foreign states and the International penal court for Rwanda (TPIR) to collaborate judicially with effective Rwanda of way as long as this one applies the capital punishment.

Other categories

2nd category: the person that the criminal acts or its criminal participation arrange among the authors, joint authors or accessory to voluntary manslaughters or gravely hurts against the people having resulted in death; the person who, in the intention to give death, because of the wounds or clerk of other serious violences but to which the victims did not succumb.

3rd category: the person having made criminal acts or its criminal participation making it guilty of other gravely hurts in the person without the intention to give death.

4th category: people having made infringements against the goods.

The suspects of these three last categories can be judged by the jurisdictions '' gacaca ''. In June 2004, a new organic law is promulgated which amalgamates the second and third categories, thus reducing by 4 to 3 the number of categories.

External bond

On the official site of the Rwandan government, definition of the 1st category and list of the suspects (in English) http://www.gov.rw/government/category1.htm

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