## Facts

- Georges Anderson Nderubumwe Rutaganda, a Rwandan businessman and MRND member, served as Second Vice-President of the Interahamwe militia in Kigali.
- The case concerned atrocities committed in Kigali during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi population, after the 6 April 1994 plane crash killing Rwanda’s president.
- The Trial Chamber found a widespread and systematic attack against Tutsi civilians in Kigali, involving militia organization and targeted killings.
- In the Cyahafi sector, Rutaganda distributed weapons to Interahamwe and others on multiple occasions in April 1994 and ordered or encouraged recipients to kill Tutsis.
- At the Amgar garage, he oversaw detention of civilians and the shooting of 14 people; evidence showed victims were separated by ethnicity and Tutsi detainees were killed.
- At the ETO technical school on 11 April 1994, after the withdrawal of UN troops, Rutaganda participated in organizing and directing the attack on thousands of predominantly Tutsi civilians sheltering there.
- Survivors from ETO were driven toward Nyanza, where many were killed; the Chamber found Rutaganda participated in these killings.
- On 28 April 1994, Rutaganda personally killed Emmanuel Kayitare.
- Rutaganda was indicted in February 1996, arrested in Zambia, transferred to ICTR custody in May 1996, tried from March 1997 to June 1999, and judgment was issued on 6 December 1999.

## Issues

1. Whether Rutaganda committed genocidal acts with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Tutsi group.
2. Whether the charged killings constituted crimes against humanity as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, and whether Rutaganda knowingly participated.
3. Whether certain murders qualified as serious violations of common Article 3 (war crimes), including whether a sufficient nexus to a non-international armed conflict was proven.
4. Whether Rutaganda incurred individual criminal responsibility by committing, ordering, or aiding and abetting the crimes through his authority and conduct.

## Decision

- The Trial Chamber convicted Rutaganda on three counts under Article 6(1) of the ICTR Statute:
  - Genocide.
  - Extermination as a crime against humanity.
  - Murder as a crime against humanity (for the killing of Emmanuel Kayitare).
- The Chamber acquitted Rutaganda on the remaining counts, including certain murder-as-crimes-against-humanity counts and certain common Article 3 war-crime counts, for failure to prove all elements beyond a reasonable doubt.
- The Chamber imposed a single sentence of life imprisonment based on the gravity of the crimes, the large number of victims, and Rutaganda’s leadership role in the Interahamwe.

## Legal Principles

- Genocide requires proof of an enumerated underlying act plus specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group as such; intent may be inferred from patterns of conduct, scale of violence, targeting, and the accused’s role.
- Crimes against humanity require that the acts be committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population on discriminatory grounds, and that the accused knew of and participated in that attack; no armed-conflict nexus is required.
- Extermination as a crime against humanity covers large-scale or mass killing and may be shown through coordinated attacks causing substantial loss of civilian life.
- Individual criminal responsibility attaches where an accused commits, orders, or aids and abets crimes, including by providing means (such as weapons), encouragement, supervision, or direction to perpetrators.
- For serious violations of common Article 3, the prosecution must prove the existence of a non-international armed conflict and a sufficient nexus between the criminal acts and that conflict; failure to prove nexus or other elements beyond a reasonable doubt warrants acquittal.

## Conclusion

The ICTR Trial Chamber held that Rutaganda’s leadership-backed distribution of weapons, direction and participation in coordinated massacres, and personal killing of a victim established genocide and crimes against humanity, with genocidal intent inferred from his repeated, targeted conduct within the broader campaign against Tutsi civilians; it imposed life imprisonment while acquitting on counts not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.


Prosecutor v. Rutaganda, Case No. ICTR-96-3-T (Int’l Crim. Trib. for Rwanda Dec. 6, 1999)