Rwanda: Court annulles Gacaca rulings against a deported Genocide suspect

The special chamber responsible for the trial of international and cross-border crimes in Nyanza, Southern Rwanda, has annulled the decisions of the gacaca courts operating in the Cyarwa-Sumo and Ngoma sectors that executed Micomyiza Jean Paul alias Mico, TOP AFRICA NEWS has learnt from a local media source.

Micomyiza Jean Paul was a student at the former National University of Rwanda accused of involvement in the Genocide against the Tutsis

The hearing panel read this decision this week in the absence of Jean Paul Micomyiza alias Mico and his lawyer.

Micomyiza Jean Paul sent by Sweden Justice and his lawyer, Me Mugema Vincent requested that the decisions of the Gacaca courts be annulled.

The Cyarwa-Sumo Court and the Ngoma District Court in Huye District had sentenced Jean Paul Micomyiza to life imprisonment in his absence.

The defendants had requested that the decisions made by these courts in 2008 and 2009 based on the provisions of the law be annulled.

The prosecution also requested the court that these decisions of the Gacaca court be annulled.

The court, based on the provisions of the law, finds that the previous decisions of the Gacaca courts should be annulled as they were read in public.

Micomyiza Jean Paul alias Mico was sent to Rwanda by Sweden and charged with the crime of genocide, complicity in genocide and rape of women as a crime against humanity.

Micomyiza Jean Paul was a second-year student at the former National University of Rwanda located in the Huye District of Southern Rwanda.

The prosecution said that there were various road blocks he set up to kill Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.

If nothing changes, the hearing will continue on 28 March 2023.