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| |  | | Théoneste Bagosora | | | context : | Rwanda  | | judgement place : | ICTR (Rwanda) | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the ICTR Trial Chamber and sentenced to life imprisonment | | position : | Former Cabinet Director to the Rwandan Defence Minister; former Commander of the Kanombe Military Camp |
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| | | | Bagosora was arrested on 9 March 1996 in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and transferred on 23 January 1997 to the United Nations prison quarters in Arusha.
Bagosora was accused of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, complicity in genocide, public and direct incitation to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of Art. 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and its Second Additional Protocol.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him.
His trial commenced on 2 April 2002 before the First Chamber of the ICTR, presided over by Judge Erik Mose (Norway). Bagosora being considered as the principal actor in the Rwandan genocide, his trial is, without a doubt, the most important for the Tribunal.
The Tribunal combined the Bagosora trial with that of three other officers of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) in what is being called the “trial of the military” Gratien Kabiligi, Aloys Ntabakuze and Anatole Nsengiyumva (see related cases) were charged with participating in preparations for genocide as was also Bagosora,. According to the ICTR, this type of combined trial (already used in the “trial of the medias”), besides the evident economic advantages it provides, allows justice to proceed much more quickly. Furthermore, by sparing the witnesses trying rounds of repeated travel and giving of testimony, their physical and mental security is much better protected.
Despite the desire for rapidity on the part of the ICTR, the “trial of the military” took up an enormous amount of its time before really getting underway. On 14 October 2004, after two years of a laborious presentation of the case for the prosecution, the prosecutor finally rested his case.
From January 2005, the defence took its turn to present its case on behalf of the four co-accused. Difficulties have already come to light in this second phase, with Bagosora’s lawyer wishing to call as witnesses certain well known personalities including two Frenchmen (the French Ambassador at the time, Jean-Michel Marlaud and Colonel Jean-Jacques Morin, who was military advisor, also at the same time), and United Nations Agents (the Ghanaian General Clayton Yaache and Mamadou Kane, the former political advisor to the United Nations special representative in Kigali) Given the role attributed to one or the other of these personalities in the various phases of the genocide, some doubts exist to a certain extent concerning the very principle of their appearance in court in Arusha.
This second phase therefore is set to be long and full of surprises. The distinguished status of the persons being called to the stand nevertheless raises hopes that many of the dark events still surrounding the 1994 genocide will finally be cleared up.
On 12 October, after an interruption of more than two months, the proceedings recommenced. The defense, who had since 11 April 2005 heard 38 witnesses, has announced to call 200 witnesses in total.
The prosecutor had rested his case after the hearing of 82 witnesses.
On 18 December 2008, the ICTR TRial Chamber I found Bagosora guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment. | |    | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Rwanda | | | date of birth : | | | 16.08.1941 | | | last time seen : | | | Arusha (Tanzania) | | | period of charges : | | | 01.01.1994 - 12.12.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 02.04.2002 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 05.01.2009 |
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