Emmanuel Nkunduwimye alias Bomboko who was found guilty of Genocide crimes, rape as crime against humanity, war crimes and attempted murder was today sentenced to 25 years in jail by the Brussels Court of Assizes.
Last week, the court of Assizes found Nkunduwimye guilty of the four crimes which he mostly committed in and around Nyarugenge.
He co-owned a garage called AMGAR with the leader of Interahamwe George Rutaganda in the current Gitega sector, near the furniture workshop of Agakinjiro where they mounted two roadblocks.
At this area, claimed the witnesses, many Tutsis were killed and dumped in a mass grave behind the garage. The garage itself was nicknamed the headquarters of Interahamwe where the president of the militia Robert Kajuga also called home.
The prosecution, through the trial which lasted for nearly two months maintained that Nkunduwimye used to wear military uniform during the Genocide.
He also had military ammunition and firearms which gave him power to decide the fate of the Tutsi during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi which claimed over one million tutsi.
In his earlier defence, he said that he was a good person who was preoccupied with the courage to save the Tutsi, and some witnesses said, that he helped them escape to Hotel Milles Collines.
Several testimonies however, said that he saved them after charging them a lot of money.
Nkunduwimye said that he was born to a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother, to convince that he did not have any hatred against the Tutsi.
He also refuted the rape accusation in front of the victim who is was in court to hear the verdict. He defended that the victim was in Cyangugu, not in Kigali during the Genocide.
“That’s hundreds of miles away. How could this be possible?” he said.
In earlier testimonies, the prosecution noted a case of trying to bribe people in this claim(that the rape victim was in Cyangugu rather than in Kigali). It is alleged that Nkunduwimye’s family tried to manipulate and mislead people to falsify documents that may attest that the victim was indeed in Cyangugu.
Nkunduwimye said there are defence witnesses who “were afraid to testify in his case” and also claimed that he did not have enough time to defend himself.
However, last week when he was given the floor, he spoke for barely two minutes.
In front of these heavy crimes, the prosecution said he deserves a life sentence in jail, but suggested that with his age, he could have lesser sentence.
