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Two Nuns Tried for Rwandan Genocide
Four Rwandans, including two Benedictine nuns, charged with taking part in the 1994 massacre of 800,000 people in Rwanda went on trial in Belgium on Tuesday.
Prosecution and defence lawyers interviewed more than 100 prospective jurors amid tight security at the Brussels Criminal Court, with throngs of journalists jamming the courtroom as the four defendants watched from behind a glass enclosure.
The two nuns, Sister Gertrude and Sister Maria Kisito, who wore their brown and white habits, are charged with premeditated murder and crimes against humanity.
They are alleged to have taken part in the slaughter of more than 5,000 people who had sought refuge at their convent outside Butare, a southern city in the former Belgian colony.
The nuns, born Consolata Mukangango and Julienne Mukabutera, allegedly helped Hutu soldiers and militiamen slaughter the Tutsi and Hutu moderates among them.
The other two defendants, university professor Vincent Ntezimana and businessman Alphonse Higaniro, are charged with collaborating with the Hutu extremists in their hunt for Tutsis during the three months of carnage in the spring of 1994.
The suspects were expected to plead innocent after the charges were read in court on Tuesday afternoon. If found guilty, they could face life in prison.
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