Athanase Seromba (born 1963) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest from Rwanda who was found guilty of committing genocide and of crimes against humanity during the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed H ...

Crimes

At the time of the genocide, Seromba was the priest in charge of a

parish at Nyange in the Kibuye province of western Rwanda. He was convicted of committing genocide due to his providing of key and necessary approval for the bulldozing of his church, where 1,500-2,000

Tutsis The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic ...

were taking refuge, with the intent to not only kill large numbers of people, but specifically to destroy the Tutsis as an ethnic group. Seromba fled Rwanda in July 1994. Catholic monks helped him move to Italy, change his name and also helped him work as a priest for the Catholic Church near the city of Florence using the alias Anastasio Sumba Bura. Under pressure from

Carla Del Ponte Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947) is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former ...

, the then Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor, Seromba surrendered himself to the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

(ICTR) on February 6, 2002. On February 8, 2002, he pleaded not guilty to the charges of

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

complicity in genocide Complicity in genocide is illegal under international law both for individuals, as part of international criminal law, and state parties to the Genocide Convention. The latter was first held in the Bosnian genocide case (2007) in which the Internat ...

, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. His trial began on September 20, 2004, before the Third Trial Chamber of the ICTR. On 13 December 2006, he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Seromba appealed the verdict. On 12 March 2008, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) decided his responsibility was even greater than previously found, affirmed his conviction, and increased his punishment to life in prison. On 27 June 2009, Seromba was transferred to

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

. Seromba is serving his life sentence at Akpro-Missérété prison at

Porto-Novo Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of G ...

, Benin.

Notes and references

External links

Fondation HirondelleICTR documents on the case
1963 births Living people Hutu people 20th-century Rwandan Roman Catholic priests Catholic priests convicted of crimes against humanity People convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by international courts and tribunals Rwandan people convicted of crimes against humanity Rwandan people convicted of genocide Rwandan prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment {{Rwanda-bio-stub

Crimes

See also

Notes and references

External links