![[Rwanda] Dr Andre Rwamakuba, a former Rwandan minister for education, soon after the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitted him on 20 September. Rwamakuba was not in court when the judgement was delivered at the tribunal's headquar](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20069207.jpg.webp?itok=gNqt46u2 "L’ancien ministre rwandais de l’Education, le Dr André Rwamakuba (à gauche), peu après son acquittement au TPIR")
The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on Wednesday acquitted a former Rwandan minister of education of genocide charges.
A panel of judges ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, the charges against André Rwamakuba, 56.
Presiding Judge Michael Byron said the evidence presented was inconsistent with the allegations made in the prosecution’s indictment of Rwamakuba.
Rwamakuba had been charged with four counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 genocide in which the Rwandan government estimates that 937,000 people died.
The prosecution had alleged that he distributed machetes in the Gikomero Commune in the then Kigali-Rural Province. He was also charged with participating in the killings at the Butare University Hospital in April 1994.
The judges ruled that Rwamakuba's right to legal aid had been violated while in detention in Arusha, the tribunal's headquarters in northern Tanzania, from 22 October 1998 to 10 March 1999. The court granted him the right to seek legal redress for this anomaly.
Rwamakuba was not in court when the judgment was delivered.
His lawyer, David Hooper, urged the tribunal to penalise witnesses who had given false testimonies in the case. False testimonies "poison the waters of justice", Hooper said. "My client was in detention for seven years."
Rwamakuba's acquittal is the fifth since the tribunal's inception and the second in less than a month after the acquittal of a former mayor, Jean Mpambara, on 12 September.
The tribunal, which held its first trial in January 1997, has so far rendered 30 judgments. Trials are under way for another 28 accused.
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A panel of judges ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, the charges against André Rwamakuba, 56.
Presiding Judge Michael Byron said the evidence presented was inconsistent with the allegations made in the prosecution’s indictment of Rwamakuba.
Rwamakuba had been charged with four counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 genocide in which the Rwandan government estimates that 937,000 people died.
The prosecution had alleged that he distributed machetes in the Gikomero Commune in the then Kigali-Rural Province. He was also charged with participating in the killings at the Butare University Hospital in April 1994.
The judges ruled that Rwamakuba's right to legal aid had been violated while in detention in Arusha, the tribunal's headquarters in northern Tanzania, from 22 October 1998 to 10 March 1999. The court granted him the right to seek legal redress for this anomaly.
Rwamakuba was not in court when the judgment was delivered.
His lawyer, David Hooper, urged the tribunal to penalise witnesses who had given false testimonies in the case. False testimonies "poison the waters of justice", Hooper said. "My client was in detention for seven years."
Rwamakuba's acquittal is the fifth since the tribunal's inception and the second in less than a month after the acquittal of a former mayor, Jean Mpambara, on 12 September.
The tribunal, which held its first trial in January 1997, has so far rendered 30 judgments. Trials are under way for another 28 accused.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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