Emmanuel Nkunduwimye guilty of war crimes and genocide in Rwanda

The jury at the Brussels Court of Assizes has found Emmanuel Nkunduwimye guilty of war crimes and genocide for murder, attempted murder and rape committed in Rwanda in 1994.

The 65-year-old Belgian-Rwandan man was charged with an unknown number of murders, rape and attempted murder at a residential complex in the Rwandan capital Kigali, where he had a garage at the time of the genocide against Tutsis between April and July 1994.

During the trial, several witnesses testified that Nkunduwimye was good friends with Robert Kajuga and co-owned the garage with George Rutanganda, two leaders of the militia Interahamwe, which was responsible for most of the massacres during the genocide. Rutanganda was previously sentenced to life imprisonment by the Rwanda tribunal. 

The investigation revealed that between April and May 1994, the accused did indeed stay in the Amgar residential complex, which was owned by Rutaganda's family and became a stronghold of the Interahamwe during the genocide. Several Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed there.

In 1996, experts from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda discovered 27 more bodies at the complex. Nkunduwimye could not have been ignorant of the abuses committed there, the court found.

^{Emmanuel Nkunduwimye © BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE}