Sandnes, January 2023: A man is finally free after 15 years as a suspect for participation in genocide. His case has been dismissed. Bergen, February 2023: A man is at home with his wife and children on a short leave. He has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for participating in genocide. Rwanda, 6 April 1994: The plane of the president of the country is shot down. It is the start of the 100 days that are known in retrospect as the genocide in Rwanda. Both of these men are in the country when leaders of the Hutu ethnic group have decided that they will kill members of the Tutsi ethnic group. Between 800,000 and 1 million people are killed. One tenth of the population of Rwanda wiped out. And in Norway, one man is in prison for participating in the genocide. Sadi Bugingo has been sentenced to 21 years in prison. Bugingo thinks Feire has given false testimony against him. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen / news – Built on witness testimony At the same time, several others have been suspected of the same thing, but no one else has been convicted in Norway. – What primarily characterizes the cases is that they are based on witness statements. That makes it vulnerable to sources of error, says Brynjulf Risnes, Bugingo’s lawyer. He has also been the lawyer for Eugene Nkuranyabahizi, who has been suspected in what is called the Stavanger case. This is the case that was shelved in January this year. Then Nkyranyabahizi became a free man. Eugene Nkuranyabahizi on the day he was told that he was no longer suspected of participation in the genocide. Photo: Kaj Hjertnes / RYKKEBILKAMERA But Risnes thinks the cases are so similar that the fact that one is put away makes it interesting to look at the other again. With him on the team is former Kripos investigator Håvard Aksnes. But it takes quite a bit to get a case reopened. He thinks he is innocent In the judgment from the Court of Appeal, it is stated that Bugingo was found guilty of premeditated complicity in the murder of more than 2,000 people. It states that he has not killed anyone himself, but that he is being sentenced for both mental and physical complicity. The court wrote that he was physically a driver for killers and that he transported Tutsis who were to be killed. Mentally, he must have participated in the attack by being present and having influence by virtue of his position. It should have strengthened the killers’ intention to carry out the murder. The court points out that he had no formal leadership role. They also write that the murder would have been carried out even if Bugingo had not been involved. He himself believes that he is innocent. He has been jailed for 12 years and has two years left to serve. – It is heavy. Very heavy, he says of sitting inside. – I have never been involved in politics, not for a single second. I worked as a businessman. Did you kill someone? – No. Have you had others killed by showing them where they were hiding? – No. – Have you committed any of the crimes for which you have been convicted? – No, no one. I am one hundred percent innocent. Defender Risnes also refers to similar cases abroad. – There are systematic sources of error in some of the cases. Witnesses have been under the influence and have observations that are suspiciously similar to each other. This gives reason to investigate more closely whether there may be connections here that indicate that the case has been fabricated. Defense attorney Brynjulf Risnes believes there is good reason to look at Sadi Bugingo’s case again. Photo: Tom Balgaard The genocide in Rwanda During around 100 days in 1994, it is estimated that between 800,000 and one million people were killed in Rwanda. Before the genocide started, there were just under 8 million inhabitants in the country. Around 10 percent of Rwanda’s population was thus killed in the genocide. Those killed mainly belonged to the Tutsi ethnic group, but there were also murders of opposition Hutus. It is estimated that up to 200,000 perpetrators participated in the genocide. Source: Kripos. – Haven’t seen anything concretely new. Risnes points out that it will require a great deal of financial effort and determination to have the Bugingo case re-examined. Marit Formo was the police attorney in the Bugingo case. She says that she is not aware that there is new information in the case that changes the evidence photo from that time. She points out that Risnes presented several arguments during the trial which he thought pointed in the direction of Bugingo’s innocence. – The Court of Appeal found, in common with the District Court, that this did not change the overall evidence in the case. She believes that Kripos conducted an extensive and thorough investigation of the case and points out that in order for a case to be reopened in Norway, there must be new evidence or new circumstances. – I have not seen anything concretely new in this case, she says. She cannot therefore comment on whether it will be relevant to reopen at a later date. Furthermore, she shows on a general basis that no cases are the same, and that there is much that is not transferable from one case to another. Public Prosecutor Marit Formo in the National Public Prosecutor’s Office. Photo: Julianne Bråten Mossing / news Got 19 names on a list The public prosecutors in both the Stavanger case and the Bergen case and defender Risnes disagree about a lot, for example how strong the evidence in the cases is. But they agree on one thing: the evidence in the cases mostly consists of witness statements. And the witness statements are about events that are almost 30 years old. In 2004, Norwegian authorities received a list of 19 names. The persons on the list were suspected of having participated in the genocide. The list must have come from Rwandan authorities. The vast majority of the cases on the list were put away, but some have been investigated further. Two of them were Bugingo and Nkuranyabahizi. Risnes believes the list of names was created as a revenge action by people in Norway linked to the regime in Rwanda. – It is our experience that there is so much similarity in all the cases that it is doubtful whether any of those on the list are actually guilty. Bugingo himself was surprised that his name was on this list. False witness statements Håvard Aksnes is a former investigator in Kripos and has written three reports on Nkuranyabahizi’s case. He has been very critical of the investigation that has been carried out in the Stavanger case, i.e. the case that has now been shelved. – In my opinion, Kripos and the prosecutor’s office should have understood many years ago that something was not right and should have closed the investigation of Eugene. Håvard Aksnes is one of those working to get Bugingo’s case reopened. Photo: Bjørn Sigurdsøn / SCANPIX Aksnes believes that critical thinking, critical questions and alternative hypotheses have been absent throughout the investigation. Now he is working with lawyer Risnes to look at Bugingo’s case again. Sadi Bugingo herself is motivated to continue working on the case. – The witness has said a lot. Some of them know me, others do not, but what they have said which led to my being sentenced is not true. That’s why I have to try to find out how I can get my case up again, says Bugingo. He believes that the reason why people have testified against him is to get revenge on the Hutus. – I hope that there will come a time when they regret what they have done and come back and tell the truth. I am waiting for the truth to come out so that we Rwandans can live well together and stop blaming each other. But lawyer Risnes thinks it is not necessarily likely that they will get the case taken up again. – In a way, it is unlikely, because there are very few cases that are reopened, he says. He hopes that the information that has come to light in the Stavanger case will increase interest in the Bergen case, so that one can gradually arrive at a retrial. – But this is work that takes time and difficult matters to work on. When news met Bugingo, he was on leave at home with his family in Bergen. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen / news
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Suspect after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 – Eugene’s case has been dropped, but Sadi is serving 21 years – news Vestland
