Bazaramba plans to appeal genocide conviction

Francois Bazaramba, who was given a life sentence on Friday for involvement in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, plans to appeal his conviction. The sentence, handed down by the Eastern Uusimaa District Court in Porvoo, was the first such conviction in Finnish legal history.
      Defence lawyer Ville Hoikkala said that Bazaramba, 59, was disappointed and sad on Friday. He has tenaciously denied any involvement in the killings.
     
The defence was disappointed that the court had not discounted all witness testimony that it claims was elicited through torture. The defence would have wanted the court to disregard the accounts of 19 witnesses, who, according to the defence, had testified against Bazaramba simply to save their own skins.
      In the end, the court only dismissed testimony from two witnesses, who had been beaten in a Rwandan prison.
      The court heard testimony from a total of 68 witnesses, some of them in Rwanda and some in Tanzania.
     
The prosecution says that it is not clear that even the two witnesses, whose testimony had been disregarded, had actually been tortured.
      State prosecutor Raija Toiviainen notes that the court did not find evidence that witnesses, who had spent time in prison, had been systematically tortured in order to extract information.
      Toiviainen said that the prosecution is also considering an appeal.
      “The defendant was sentenced for mass murder, so the indictment can be seen to have been largely been proven correct.”
     
The court rejected several claims made by the prosecution as lacking evidence, but found nevertheless that the prerequisites for a conviction for mass killing had been met. For instance, the court mentioned in its decision that Bazaramba had held a speech on the square of his home village Birambo, in which he urged local Hutus to kill Ttusis.
      In the nearby Cyahinda Church, Bazaramba had taken part in attacks against Tutsis who had sought sanctuary at the church. Tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed at the church. Many of them fled to a nearby mountain, and the court found that Bazaramba had taken part in attacks there as well.
     
Bazaramba said that during the attacks he had been hiding elsewhere, but the court was not fully satisfied with the alibi.
      The court found that Bazaramba had twice ordered Hutus to kill certain Tutsis. He had organised roadblocks and night patrols, forced Tutsis out of their homes, and acquired matches for the burning of Tutsis’ homes.
     
Bazaramba will stay in Finland for now, but it is theoretically possible that he might be sent to Rwanda. Such a move would require the approval of both governments and Bazaramba himself.
      Rwanda’s head prosecutor Martin Ngoga was pleased that Bazaramba had been given a life sentence. He says that Rwandan officials will decide later whether or not to ask for Bazaramba’s extradition.
      Ngoga pointed out that several foreign countries have handed down more lenient sentences in cases in which people convicted of involvement in the Rwandan genocide, even though they were found guilty.
      Juhani Korhonen, a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Justice, said that Bazaramba could be extradited to Rwanda. However, he added: “Because Finland has not extradited him before, I would consider this as mainly a theoretical possibility.”
     
The trial cost Finland about EUR 2.8 million. Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green) does not feel that the cost was unreasonable, considering that it was such an exceptional case.
      “Of course, this would be expensive if it were to happen often”, Brax siad.
      The Bazaramba case was tried in Finland, because the Ministry of Justice refused to extradite the defendant to Rwanda, where the ministry feared that he might not have had a fair trial.
     
Several other countries have also refused to extradite genocide suspects to Rwanda.
      The only exception was Sweden, which ordered the extradition of a man in the summer of 2008. However, the man appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ordered that the implementation of the extradition should be suspended. The man is currently being held in Sweden on remand.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Life sentence handed down in Rwanda genocide case heard in Porvoo (11.6.2010)
  Arguments conclude in Rwanda genocide trial in Porvoo (27.4.2010)
  Finnish court concludes hearing testimony in Tanzania in Rwanda genocide case (18.3.2010)
  Finnish court hears evidence in Rwanda genocide trial in Tanzanian hotel (23.2.2010)
  Finnish police set up courtroom in Rwanda for genocide trial (14.9.2009)
  Prosecutor denies witness statements against Rwandan man acquired by torture (2.6.2009)