Munyenyezi Béatrice’s lawyers accused the High Court of Huye of fabricating the testimony against Munyenyezi and fabricating the witness who gave it.

Mr. Bruce Bikotwa, one of the two defense attorneys for Béatrice Munyenyezi, said that there was a witness named Sadiki, who the prosecution said was dead (In the system, Sadiki is dead).

He said, “We were very surprised that the witness Sadiki did not appear before us, either in the transcript or to appear in court face to face.”

Mr. Bikotwa told the special chamber responsible for the trial of international and cross-border crimes in Nyanza in the Southern Province Béatrice Munyenyezi is appealing that the witness named Sadiki never appeared in the case Munyenyezi was tried by the High Court of Huye at the first level.

He said, “We don’t believe those statements of that witness that the High Court of Huye called him so that Munyenyezi will be convicted of the crimes he is accused of.” He further told the Court that it is very surprising that the court relied on the statements of a person who has not appeared.

He said, “The prosecution still won’t present him because they have confirmed that he is dead, Munyenyezi has been found guilty of the crime.” Mr. Bikotwa told the court that no transcripts of the RIB or the prosecution have been seen in the trial until it is closed, and he said that he was surprised to hear that Munyenyezi was convicted on the basis of a witness who did not exist.

Mr. Felecien Gashema, Béatrice Munyenyezi’s lawyer, said that among the 20 prosecution witnesses they claimed to have, Sadiki was not even mentioned. He said, “The High Court of Huye called an unnamed witness to testify so that Béatrice Munyenyezi can be found guilty of the crimes she is accused of.”

Ms. Bikotwa said that the court’s decision that imposed a sentence of life imprisonment shows that the prosecution acted as if they did not say anything and yet they gave evidence against Béatrice Munyenyezi.

He told the court that during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, Béatrice Munyenyezi was pregnant with twins so that she could not see how she was going to kill at the same time and go to the barricade because of her physical weakness as the prosecution did not show contradictory evidence.

He says that all the accusers of Béatrice Munyenyezi did not say that they ever saw her pregnant and that is what drove her from her high school studies in Gitwe and her husband Arsene Shalom Ntahobari got married and then she continued her high school education in Huye at CEFOTEC.

He said “those witnesses to confirm that they did not see Béatrice Munyenyezi pregnant with the things that were used were like a remote control.” The prosecution does not say anything about the reasons for Béatrice Munyenyezi’s appeal because the case continues with Béatrice Munyenyezi’s reasons for appealing.

Béatrice Munyenyezi is a 53-year-old woman who was sent to Rwanda by the United States of America and accused of crimes related to the Genocide. “I was sentenced to life imprisonment by the High Court of Huye because of the family I married into.” She said.

Munyenyezi is the daughter-in-law of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who was the Minister of Family at Abatabazi State, and the wife of Arsene Shalom Ntahobari, whose husband and mother-in-law were all convicted of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment.

If there is no change, the case will continue on December 10, 2024.