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19Jun14
Svea Court of Appeal Upholds Genocide Conviction
(Apr. 5, 2017) On February 15, 2017,Sweden's Svea Court of Appeal upheld a previous district court conviction for genocide in the case of a Hutu Rwandan refugee who also holds Swedish citizenship. (Press Release,Dom i folkmords-mål [Judgment in Genocide Case] (Feb. 15, 2017), Svea Court of Appeal website; Case B 4951-16, Svea Court of Appeal (Feb. 15, 2017) (HovR) (on file with author); Case B 12882-14, Stockholm District Court (May 16, 2016) (TR) (on file with author).)
Background
The accused, a dual national of Rwanda and Sweden, came to Sweden as a refugee in 2002 and has been married to a Tutsi woman since before the 1994 genocide. Prior to coming to Sweden as a quota refugee, he had left Rwanda in May 1994, after the genocide there. (Testimony, Case B 12882-14, Stockholm District Court (May 16, 2016)(TR) (on file with author).)
The Svea Court Finding
A large part of the Svea Court's verdict rested on witness statements and revolved around whether the witness statements, given the elapsed time from the experience and the gacaca trials, could be deemed reliable. Gacaca trials are traditional methods of dispute resolution used in Rwanda. (HovR at 31f; About Gacaca Community Courts, Gacaca Community Justice website (last visited Mar. 28, 2017).) The gacaca court had convicted the accused in absentia on September 27, 2007. (HovR at 15.) The Svea Court did not find the gacaca verdict consistent enough on its own to serve as convincing evidence that the accused was guilty, but did find that the decision could be used to support other evidence. (HovR at 13.) The Court also noted that the accused had spread information that "Tutsis were enemies and should be looted and killed." (Id. at 14.) The Court determined that the accused did not have any alibi for the relevant time period and that his wife's testimony did not support his own. (HovR at 8.)
The Svea Court ultimately found that it had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had organized and recruited helpers to aid in the attacks on a large congregation of Tutsis who had sought protection on Nyamure mountain; that he had provided weapons to the attackers; that he had led attackers in the final assault against the Tutsi on the mountain; that during this attack he, together and in agreement with the other attackers, participated in the killings and attempted killings, making it likely the crime would be carried out successfully; and that the attack had resulted in the killing of several thousand civilians. (Id. at 31.) The crimes he was sentenced for included abduction, attempted murder, and murder and were committed at a number of different locations in Rwanda. These acts together constituted genocide, the Court concluded. (Id. at 52.)
Damages
The Svea Court awarded damages of 59 million Rwandan francs (about US$70,362) to 14 of the victims, to be paid by the convicted man. (HovR at 3.) This represented a lowering of the total amount of damages awarded by the original court from 81 million Rwandan francs, but was an increase for some victims and a reduction for others. (Id.; compare TR at 6.) The sums are based on Rwandan law and precedent on tort damages. (TR at 140 and HovR at 52.) A sequestration of property equal to the awarded sum has been in place since the start of the district court case (HovR at 60) and reportedly the total sum has already been confiscated by the Swedish authorities. (Juan Flores,Domen mot folkmördaren: livstids fängelse [Verdict Against Genocide Perpetrator: Life Imprisonment], DAGENS NYHETER (Feb. 15, 2017).)
Appeal
The case has been appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court (Assigned Case No. B1302-17). It is at the discretion of the Supreme Court to hear the case. Leave to appeal is typically granted for important cases in which the Supreme Court needs to aid the Appellate Court in interpreting law. (54 ch. 10 § Rättegångsbalken (RB) [Civil and Criminal Procedure Code], NOTISUM.) As of March 28, the Court had not yet made a decision as to whether to hear the case. (Swedish Supreme Court, telephone interview by author, Mar. 28, 2017.)
Previous Genocide Convictions by Swedish Court of Appeals
The Svea Court of Appeal previously upheld a genocide conviction, in 2014, for crimes committed in Rwanda, when a 55-year-old Rwandan national was convicted of having committed murder and attempted murder of the Tutsi population. (Press Release,Hovrätten ändrar inte livstidsdomen i Rwandamålet [Appellate Court Upholds the Life Sentence in the Rwanda Case] (June 16, 2014), Svea Court of Appeal website; Press Release,The Court of Appeal Has Not Changed the Life Sentence in the Rwanda Case (June 19, 2017), Svea Court of Appeal website; Case RH 2014:34, Svea Court of Appeal (in Swedish) (on file with author).) No damages were awarded in that case, as damages were to be calculated using Rwandan law, and no evidence that Rwanda allowed such damages to be awarded was presented to the Court. (Hovrätten ändrar inte livstidsdomen i Rwandamålet, supra.) The case was not tried by the Swedish Supreme Court.
Supreme Court
The Swedish Supreme Court has not yet heard a material case on genocide in Rwanda, but has found extradition to Rwanda of a person suspected of genocide to be compatible with Sweden's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. (Nytt Juridisk Arkiv [New Legal Archive] 2009 at 280, LAGEN.NU.)
[Source: By Elin Hofverberg, Global Legal Monitor, Library of Congress, 05 April 2017.]
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This document has been published on 05Feb18 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
