Innocent Sagahutu, who was a captain of the Rwandan army before the 1994 genocide, is being interrogated by Immigration officers in Bukoba.
Ex-convict’s bid to cross border flops
Arusha. A former convict of the recently-disbanded International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda has been arrested in Ngara District, Kagera Region while attempting to cross to Burundi.
Innocent Sagahutu, who was a captain of the Rwandan army before the 1994 genocide, is being interrogated by Immigration officers in Bukoba.
Regional immigration officer Ally Dady told The Citizen yesterday over phone that the former army officer tried to cross to Burundi without the valid papers and was arrested.
According to him, Sagahutu had completed a 15-year-jail term for his role in the massacre in Rwanda in which 800 people were killed after the downing the then President Juvenal Habyarimana’s aircraft.
He said after serving his sentence, Sagahutu could not immediately find a country that would host him and that he needed a special clearance to travel out of Arusha. He said Sagahutu did not possess the required documents that could have enabled him to travel out of Arusha or elsewhere.
However, when contacted over phone from Kagera, Sagahutu said he had all papers which allowed him to travel out of Arusha.
He said the Immigration officers in Ngara could not read them well and that was why he was detained there for 11 days. He added that the documents had the clearance from the United Nations offices in Tanzania, noting that he was travelling to Burundi to see his relatives.
Sagahutu the same clearance permits have seen him travelling to Mozambique and Switzerland “without any problem or causing harm to anybody”.
He is among 10 Rwanda nationals who are yet to find countries to host them after serving their jail sentences for their role in the Rwanda genocide or after being acquitted.Many of them are living in a special detention facility of the UN in Arusha.
