Following a commotion that was created by the request of Uwimana Primitive, the wife of Seraphin Twahirwa, a genocide suspect in Brussels Court of Assizes yesterday, new records have been registered.
Yesterday, the court was obliged to suspend the hearing following division between the prosecution and the defence on principles.
The defence argued that Uwimana, a genocide survivor who came to court from Kenya to witness on the side of prosecution could give her testimony in camera.
The prosecution, joined by civil parties maintained that the threats were coming from the suspect who kept telling his wife to decline having ever been in touch to talk about the trial.
The controversies came after the witness claimed that she had been receiving threats and wished to only speak in camera because “there were people from her country, including her relatives and it was hard to talk about her children in the public.”
Today, Uwimana returned to court in evening after she was tested by doctors who confirmed she is all-right, contrary to signs of mental case yesterday.
From the first sentence, the wife who had earlier on testified against her husband who allegedly obtained her out of rape, totally changed her mind and said :” In fact in the first interviews, I was speaking out of pressure from one Bosco and Fidele. They told me how I should testify against my husband.”
The wife further said, that otherwise, she consented to the marriage with Twahirwa and they were good friends calling each other “cheri chouchou.” However, she failed to recall the day they got legally married, even though she claimed it was a very big celebration.
She declined her husband’s relationship with interahamwe, and denied everything around the allegations including illegal possession of firearm and killings.
The judge asked her how come she could deny things dozens of witnesses said without contradiction, including the fact that they had a Samurai car. She said that her husband “only used to borrow a car whose driver Majoro.”
The later was described as a notorious Interahamwe in previous witnesses. Other Interahamwe she acknowledged knowing are Gakuru and Gato. According to earlier witnesses, the two were Twahirwa’s escorts.
Uwimana denied a case where Twahirwa is alleged to have killed Kamuzinzi after serial rape of his wife. Kamuzinzi’s wife survived the Genocide and is in Brussels where she testified against Twahirwa. She is currently under treatment after the testimony which revived her mental wounds.
Uwimana said that this witness is a great friend whom she misses and wishes to meet and hug.
The wife of the defendant also said that her husband battled to have her safe during the genocide where Interahamwe wanted to kill her. She said they separated in Congo after “people in uniform warned her not to continue to follow the Hutu in the jungle.”
“Ever since, we never met until this case brought me here,” she said adding they tried to search each other but never managed.
According to the witness, ever since she started giving the testimony in this case, her daughter “hated her, abandoned her and said she would never forgive her.”
She said her daughter was defiled while at 15 and does not like the incident be shared.
She further said that in Kenya, she was obliged to give a wrong testimony fearing for her life.
“But today, even if I die, I will go in dignity because I have shared my true story,” she said.
