ARUSHA, Tanzania (AFP) — Nine people definitively convicted by the UN-backed international court trying suspected ringleaders in Rwanda's 1994 genocide have been transferred to Benin, an official said Wednesday.
The transfer of the nine to serve out their sentences on conviction of crimes against humanity and genocide took place last Saturday, said Roland Amoussouga, spokesman of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Among those sent to the small west African country were former finance minister Emmanuel Ndindabahizi and a Roman Catholic priest, father Athanase Seromba.
The ICTR in Arusha, northern Tanzania, is gradually transferring convicts from its cells to other countries under arrangements made with the United Nations, while the court slowly winds up its business.
Another west African country, Mali, has already taken in 15 convicts, including former prime minister Jean Kambanda, who headed the interim government during the genocide and has been sentenced for life.
Over 100 days in April-June 1994, members of Rwanda's mainly Hutu army and militias slaughtered an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in the small central African country.
The United Nations set up the ICTR by the end of the same year to carry out trials of prime suspects in the genocide.
Article 26 of the court's statute stipulates that sentences are served in Rwanda or in a state designated by the ICTR among the list of nations that have made it known to the UN Security Council that they are ready to take in convicts.
The Rwandan government argues that under this statute, the first destination for convicts must be Rwanda itself, and a prison has been built in the south of the country that meets stipulated UN standards. But at present, no ICTR convict has been sent to Rwanda.
Apart from Mali, Benin and Rwanda, four other countries have signed an agreement with the UN to take in ICTR convicts: France, Italy, Swaziland and Sweden.
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