This case summary is part of a collection of summaries describing the cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). See the Online Resource Hub pages on the ICTR and International Criminal Law, and table of ICTR case summaries for additional information.
Trial Judgment: 22 January 2004; Appeal Judgment: 19 September 2005
Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, the former Rwandan Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, stood trial for his involvement in ordering the Interahamwe militia, soldiers, and police to kill Tutsis in Gikomero Parish Compound. The prosecution charged Kamuhanda with direct and superior responsibility for genocide; complicity in genocide; conspiracy to commit genocide; incitement to genocide; crimes against humanity for acts of murder, rape, extermination, and other inhumane acts; and war crimes for acts of outrages upon dignity and violence to life.
In 2004, an ICTR Trial Chamber convicted Kamuhanda of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity, finding that Kamuhanda had supervised and led the killings in Gikomero Parish and that he had provided weapons to the Interahamwe militia. In 2005, the ICTR Appeals Chamber reversed the Trial Chamber’s finding that Kamuhanda had instigated, aided, and abetted genocide and extermination but affirmed the Trial Chamber’s finding that Kamuhanda was responsible for ordering genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. The Appeals Chamber affirmed the Trial Chambers sentence of life imprisonment.