The Butare Four are four Rwandans who were convicted in June 2001 for war crimes that occurred during the

Rwanda 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 Hutu ...

. The case was the first time that a Belgian court had convicted people for a crime committed abroad against international law.Rwandan nuns jailed for 1994 massacre
8 June 2001, CNN, Retrieved 1 March 2016

Detail

The four individuals were Vincent Ntezimana, a former professor at Butare University; Alphonse Higaniro, the SORWAL factory director; and Benedictine nuns Sister Gertrude Consolata Mukangango and Sister Kisito a.k.a. Julienne Mukabutera. The four were convicted for participating in the killing of

Tutsi 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 grou ...

citizens in their native

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. The four fled to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, where they were subsequently tried, convicted, and sentenced to 12 to 20 years under Belgian law.''Belgium's First Application of Universal Jurisdiction: The Butare Four'', 1 J. Int'l Crim. Just. 428 (2003) Belgium did not have an extradition treaty with Rwanda at the time. The Belgium courts implemented the use of

universal jurisdiction Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle that allows states or international organizations to claim criminal jurisdiction over an accused person regardless of where the alleged crime was committed, and regardless of the accused's nationality, ...

. This is the first case in which Belgium applied universal jurisdiction. In addition, it was the first time individuals were tried and convicted under the 1993 Act Concerning Grave Breaches of International Humanitarian Law.

References

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Additional sources

Belgium's First Application of Universal Jurisdiction: the Butare Four Case
Luc Reydams, Oxford Journals Butare Belgium–Rwanda relations Rwandan people convicted of genocide Rwandan people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Belgium 2001 in law 2001 in Belgium