Former Minister of Finance Emmanuel Ndindabahizi, who served only three months in the transitional government, has passed away in Benin where he had been sent to serve his life sentence issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Emmanuel Ndindabahizi was serving a life sentence handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His death occurred on October 5, 2025, around 4:30 p.m. in Cotonou, according to Aboubacar M. Tambadou, Registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), who notified the institution’s president, Graciela Gatti Santana.
Ndindabahizi was arrested in 2001 in Belgium and transferred to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania. In 2004, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for his active role in encouraging and facilitating attacks against Tutsi civilians in the former Kibuye Prefecture, where he was born. The tribunal found that his statements and actions directly contributed to massacres, including assaults on Tutsi who had sought refuge at the Gitwa rope bridge.
Ndindabahizi, born in 1950 in the former Gitesi Commune, made his first court appearance in October 2001. His trial began in September 2003 and included testimony from 34 witnesses. The ICTR determined he was among those who played a significant role in inciting and implementing the genocide. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment, Ndindabahizi was transferred in 2009 to Benin to serve out his sentence alongside eight other convicted individuals.
Others transferred with him included Georges Rutaganda, Gerard Ntakirutimana, Juvenal Kajelijeli, Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, Aloys Simba, Juvenal Rugambarara, Athanase Seromba, and François Karera, all convicted of taking part in Genocide 1994 against Tutsi.
Brenna AKARABO
RADIOTV10
