A UN court rejected the early release of Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, one of the top Rwandan officials sentenced by international justice for the genocide of Tutsis in 1994, according to the decision, consulted this Monday by AFP.
Bagosora, 79, was chief of staff at the Defense Ministry in 1994 and the prosecution presented him during his trial as the “mastermind” of the genocide that killed 800,000 people, mainly belonging to the Tutsi minority.
In 2008, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda sentenced him to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity and war, a sentence the appeals chamber reduced to 35 years in prison in 2011.
Bagosora, in prison in Mali, requested his early release in March 2019, a measure that has already been granted to several Rwandan genociders who have served two-thirds of their sentences.
The president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, Carmel Agius, rejected the claim, underlining “the extremely high gravity” of his crimes and considering that “it did not sufficiently demonstrate his reintegration,” according to the decision.