Africa-Press – Rwanda. The appeal hearing of the FLN terror case has been postponed as the judges ruled that Paul Rusesabagina, one of the defendants was not summoned in the right way stipulated by the law.
Prosecutors and convicts have both contested the court’s decision in last year’s case involving fighters and leaders of FLN, a terrorist group and its political outfit, MRCD.
While prosecution is appealing the penalties given to the convicts, saying they are too lenient in comparison to the crimes, among other things, 14 of the convicted persons claim the penalties they were given are too heavy, considering some mitigating factors, for example, their collaboration with the court during the trial process.
The 14 are part of the 21 who were in September last year convicted by the High Court Chamber for International and Cross-border Crimes and handed varying penalties for having played a role in the terror attacks conducted by the FLN in South Western Rwanda from June 2018 to October 2019.
At least nine people were killed, several others injured, property looted or destroyed during the attacks. The convicts received penalties ranging from 25 to 30 years in jail.
As the appeal hearing started on the morning of Monday, January 17 at the Court of Appeal in Kigali, the prosecutors informed the judges that Rusesbagina had not turned up for the trial, despite the fact that he had been informed about it. However, some defence lawyers argued that he was not informed in the right way that is stipulated by the law.
For example, Harriet Murekatete, the lawyer who represents Marc Nizeyimana and Cassien Bizimana (Rusesabagina’s fellow convicts) asked the court to examine whether the prison administration is a competent institution to summon prisoners to court hearings.
“According to the law, it must be the court’s secretariat or bailiffs that inform people about the court’s summons. However, the report presented by the prosecutors shows that it is the prison that informed the defendants about the trial,” she said.
Jean Rugeyo, who represents Callixte Nsabimana alias Sankara and Herman Nsengimana echoed the same. “There should be some scrutiny into the issue of which institution is competent to inform the prisoners about court summons. I find this as an issue that we should not take for granted,” he said.
“If the prison administration is not competent for this, then even their report that was presented to court in regard to who refused to turn up for the trial has no value. We request that the trial be postponed so that Rusesabagina will be informed in the right way,” he added. With this, the judges decided to adjourn the hearing to a further date which will be communicated soon.
For More News And Analysis About Rwanda Follow Africa-Press
