On 8 June 2001, Athanase Seromba was charged by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on the following four counts:
- genocide (Art. 2 § 3 lit. b ICTR Statute) or alternatively complicity in genocide (Art. 2 § 3 lit. e Statute ICTR).
- conspiracy to commit genocide (Art. 2 § 3 lit. b ICTR Statute), and
- crimes against humanity: extermination (Art. 3 lit. b ICTR Statute).
Athanase Seromba, who had fled to Italy in 1997, gave himself up to the ICTR on 6 February 2002.
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 ended 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 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 aiding and abetting genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity and substituted it to convictions for committing genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. The Appeals Chamber unanimously quashed the sentence of 15 years imprisonment and sentenced him to life in prison.
Athanase Seromba is to remain in the Detention Facility pending his transfer to the country in which he will serve his sentence.
Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
