## Facts

- Alfred Musema, a Hutu and director of the state-owned Gisovu Tea Factory in Kibuye Prefecture, held authority over employees and access to factory vehicles and resources.
- In 1994, large groups of Tutsi civilians fled to hills in the Bisesero region (including Muyira and Rwirambo) and were repeatedly attacked by organized assailants.
- The Trial Chamber found the attacks were directed at Tutsi civilians and formed part of a campaign to destroy the Tutsi population in the Bisesero area.
- Multiple witnesses placed Musema at several attacks, often arriving in a vehicle associated with the tea factory and using his status to influence and organize assailants.
- The Chamber found that Musema personally participated in and directed attacks against Tutsi refugees on Muyira hill, where many civilians were killed using firearms, grenades, and traditional weapons.
- The Chamber found Musema also participated in attacks in Rwirambo and other nearby localities targeting Tutsi civilians.
- The Chamber found Musema committed rape as part of the broader anti-Tutsi violence, including ordering a Tutsi woman stripped and raped and then raping her himself in front of others.
- Musema asserted an alibi supported by documents and defense witnesses; the Chamber found it did not raise a reasonable doubt and gave limited weight to parts of the supporting documentation.

## Issues

1. Whether the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Musema committed genocide by acting with specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Tutsi group in the Bisesero region.
2. Whether Musema’s conduct satisfied the contextual elements for crimes against humanity and whether he was individually responsible for extermination, murder, other inhumane acts, and rape.
3. How the Trial Chamber should address overlapping charges (including complicity and conspiracy to commit genocide) to avoid duplicative convictions based on the same conduct.
4. Whether the evidence established responsibility for violations of common Article 3 and Additional Protocol II, including the required armed-conflict nexus.
5. Whether Musema’s alibi and challenges to witness credibility created reasonable doubt.

## Decision

- The Trial Chamber found that genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994 and that Tutsi were a protected group targeted for destruction, including in the Kibuye/Bisesero region.
- The Chamber convicted Musema of genocide (Count 1), finding he participated in killings during the Bisesero attacks with the requisite special intent.
- The Chamber convicted Musema of crimes against humanity, including extermination and rape, based on his participation in mass attacks and his personal commission of sexual violence.
- The Chamber declined to enter additional convictions where other counts were treated as subsumed or duplicative of the genocide and crimes-against-humanity findings.
- The Chamber did not enter convictions for the charged common Article 3/Additional Protocol II violations for the conduct attributed to Musema.
- The Chamber rejected Musema’s alibi as insufficient to create reasonable doubt.
- The Chamber sentenced Musema to life imprisonment.

## Legal Principles

- Genocide requires proof of acts such as killing members of a protected group committed with specific intent to destroy the group, in whole or in part; intent may be inferred from the systematic targeting of victims as members of the group and the nature and scale of the attacks.
- Crimes against humanity require proof that the accused’s acts were committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population; extermination addresses mass killing, and rape is a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed under coercive circumstances.
- Individual criminal responsibility may be established through personal participation, direction, and logistical or organizational contribution to attacks, including use of institutional authority and resources.
- Trial chambers may avoid cumulative convictions where the same conduct is fully captured by a more specific or more serious conviction, preventing duplicative punishment.
- Credibility assessments may account for the effects of trauma on survivors; minor inconsistencies do not necessarily undermine reliability when core allegations are corroborated and consistent with contextual evidence.
- An alibi must raise a reasonable doubt when weighed against the totality of the evidence; documentary support may be discounted if its probative value is undermined.

## Conclusion

The ICTR Trial Chamber held that Musema used his authority and resources to participate in and direct attacks on Tutsi civilians in Bisesero and to commit rape in the course of the anti-Tutsi campaign, convicting him of genocide and crimes against humanity (including extermination and rape) and imposing life imprisonment while declining duplicative or insufficiently supported convictions on other counts.


Prosecutor v. Musema, Case No. ICTR-96-13-T (Int’l Crim. Trib. for Rwanda Jan. 27, 2000)