2023-12-19 19:37:18
The verdict fell at the Brussels Assize Court this Tuesday evening. Séraphin Twahirwa and Pierre Basabosé, accused of genocide and war crimes in Rwanda in 1994, were found guilty by the jury.
The accused, Pierre Basabosé (76 years old) and Séraphin Twahirwa (65 years old), were suspected of being responsible for at least 56 murders, 13 attempted murders and 12 rapes during the Tutsi genocide. The jurors established that the two Rwandans living in Belgium committed numerous murders and numerous attempted murders in Kigali on Tutsis and moderate Hutus, between April and July 1994. They also established that the first had also committed numerous rapes of Tutsi women.
Séraphin Twahirwa was particularly suspected of having led interahamwe (Hutu militia) in Kigali, especially in the Gikondo sector. Pierre Basabosé was, for his part, mainly suspected of having supplied weapons to the interahamwe in the same sector in Kigali. Pierre Basabosé, diagnosed as suffering from mental degeneration, had not been questioned by the court. His lawyer, Me Jean Flamme, pleaded for his acquittal, calling into question the reliability of the testimonies. Séraphin Twahirwa had denied any involvement in the genocide, affirming that he had left Kigali as soon as the first massacres occurred in early April 1994. His lawyers, Messrs Vincent and Juliette Lurquin, had vigorously questioned the way in which the investigation was carried out. carried out, speaking of witnesses “prepared” in Rwanda to load the accused’s boat.
The two men were arrested in Belgium in October 2020. The investigations were carried out by the federal police in Brussels. They targeted serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Kigali, in the Gikondo and Kacyiru sectors.
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