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: 13 December 2005; Appeal Judgment: 27 November 2007
Aloys Simba, a former Lieutenant Colonel of the Rwandan Armed Forces and the president of the National Republican Movement for Democracy in Gikongoro Prefecture, stood trial for training, arming, and leading militia members, government armed forces, and Hutu civilians in attacks in Gikongoro and Butare prefectures between April and May 1994. The prosecution charged Simba with direct and superior responsibility for genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and murder as a crime against humanity.
In 2005, after the prosecution withdrew the charges of complicity in genocide and murder as a crime against humanity, an ICTR Trial Chamber convicted Simba of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity for his role in the killing of Tutsi civilians at Murambi Technical School and Kaduha Parish. In 2007, the ICTR Appeals Chamber rejected both Simba’s and the prosecution’s grounds for appeal and upheld the Trial Chamber’s sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment.