KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda’s first post-genocide president asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to quash a 15-year jail term against him for offences including inciting ethnic violence.
In June 2004, a lower court imprisoned Pasteur Bizimungu for creating a militia, embezzling state funds and inciting ethnic violence in a country still scarred by the 1994 genocide.
Prosecutors accuse Bizimungu, in his mid-50s, of committing the crimes after he resigned in 2000.
Bizimungu, who says the charges against him are politically motivated, told the Supreme Court that he was tried on charges different to those for which he was arrested.
"The arrest warrant stated that I was being arrested because of forming an illegal political party," Bizimungu said. "However, since my appearance in court this charge has never appeared but (instead there were) new fabricated ones."
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Bizimungu is appealing against his conviction on the three charges, which he denies, and wants the court to set him free.
An ethnic Hutu, he became president when the ruling Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power after the genocide in which extremists from the Hutu majority butchered 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
Current President Paul Kagame, whose Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Army ended the hundred days of slaughter, was then vice-president.
Cooperation between Bizimungu, a French-speaking Hutu, and Kagame, an English-speaking Tutsi, was intended to symbolise post-genocide reconciliation. But their relationship soured, and in March 2000, Bizimungu resigned after falling out with top RPF members over the make-up of a new cabinet.
Throughout his presidency, Bizimungu remained in the shadow of Kagame, his more powerful vice-president, who was also minister of defence at the time.
The Supreme Court’s verdict is expected about a month after the hearing is completed. The hearing continues.
