The decision concerns Mathieu Ngirumpatse,  Édouard Karemera and Callixte Nzabonimana, who were accused of involvement in the 1994 Genocide.

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday, September 29, 2014, upheld life sentences against three men convicted for masterminding the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The people concerned are Mathieu Ngirumpatse and Édouard Karemera, the former president and vice president, respectively, of NRND, the political party that orchestrated the  genocide, as well as  Callixte Nzabonimana, the Minister for Youth in the genocidal government, who was also Chairperson of MRND in then Gitarama Prefecture (current Muhanga District), The New Times, Rwanda’s leading English daily newspaper has reported.

NRMD, “National Revolutionary Movement for Development” was the ruling political party during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana saw his sentence reduced from life term to 35 years. The New Times on Tuesday, September 30, 2014 stated that Mathieu Ngirumpatse, Édouard Karemera and Callixte Nzabonimana had been handed a life sentence by the Arusha-based ICTR for genocide, crimes against humanity and for not having prevented or denounced crimes committed by the Interahamwe militia, the youth wing of the National Revolutionary Movement for Development . They appealed the verdicts.

“The Appeals Chamber, seated in open session, affirms the sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the trial chamber,” Appeals judge Theodor Meron reportedly said. Rwandan Justice Minister, Johnston Busingye, reacted that, “Genocide is an international crime and whoever takes part in it should be held to account. Justice has been served and that is the way of justice.” The convicts will be held at the ICTR until they can be transferred to any country willing to take them into custody.