  | You have information to share ?
Or mistakes to correct ?
click here...
|
|
| |  | | Athanase Seromba | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | ICTR (Rwanda) | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on 13 December 2006 by the ICTR; sentenced to life imprisonment by the Appeals Chamber on 12 March 2008; transferred to Cotonou, Benin, to serve the rest of his sentence on 27 June 2009. | | position : | Catholic Priest |
|
| | | | Athanase Seromba, who had fled to Italy, surrendered to the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) on 6 February 2002. On 8 June 2001, Athanase Seromba had been charged by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on the following four counts:
- genocide (Art. 2 § 3 (b) ICTR Statute) or alternatively complicity in genocide (Art. 2 § 3 (e) ICTR Statute);
- conspiracy to commit genocide (Art. 2 § 3 (b) ICTR Statute); and
- crimes against humanity: extermination (Art.3 (b) ICTR Statute).
At his first appearance before the First Trial Chamber he pleaded not guilty to all counts, saying he had no powers to stop the killings in his church despite having tried to halt the slaughter.
His trial began on 20 September 2004 before the Third Trial Chamber of the ICTR and on 27 June 2006, in his closing statement, the Prosecutor asked the Trial Chamber to sentence Seromba to life in prison.
On 13 December 2006, the Third Trial Chamber of the ICTR found Seromba guilty of aiding and abetting genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. He was acquitted of the count of conspiracy to commit genocide. Seromba was then sentenced to a single term of fifteen years imprisonment.
On 22 December 2006, the Prosecutor filed an appeal against this judgement.
On 12 March 2008, the Appeals Chamber overturned the conviction of Athanase Seromba for simply aiding and abetting genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity and substituted it for convictions for direct participation in committing genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. The Appeals Chamber unanimously therefore quashed the sentence of 15 years imprisonment and sentenced him to life in prison.
Athanase Seromba is to remain in the UN prison quarters in Arusha pending his transfer to the country in which he will serve his sentence.
Following a decision signed on 18 May 2009 by the President of the ICTR, Sir Dennis Byron, Athanase Seromba was transferred to Cotonou, Benin, to serve the rest of his sentence on 27 June 2009. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | last time seen : | | | Arusha (Tanzania) | | | period of charges : | | | 01.04.1994 - 20.04.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 20.09.1994 - 12.03.2008 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide | | | profile last modified : | | | 01.03.2010 |
| |
| | |
|
|
