KIGALI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan government on Friday "in the strongest terms possible" opposed the planned early release of genocide convict Aloys Simba from prison by Theodor Meron, judge and president of UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism).
Simba was convicted of genocide and the crime against humanity of extermination by UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in 2005. The Mechanism started assuming responsibility for the ICTR's residual functions in 2012.
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of about one million people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, Simba handed out weapons to militias surrounding the Murambi Technical School in southern Rwanda and instructed them to massacre thousands of Tutsi civilians who were seeking shelter there, according to IBUKA, the umbrella body of genocide survivors associations of Rwanda.
The Rwandan government has learned that the outgoing president of Mechanism is planning on releasing Simba from prison, eight years before the end of his prison term, which is a "unilateral action" against the objections of the Rwandan government, it said in a statement released in Rwandan capital city Kigali.
Simba has shown no remorse and has not cooperated with investigators and prosecutors, and his release will result in "dire consequences" for survivors of his crimes, said the statement.
Meron's plan to release Simba is not the result of a statutory requirement or the facts, said the statement.
The Rwandan government also urged the next president of the Mechanism to take more seriously the law and the facts when reviewing applications for early release.
About 10 genocide perpetrators convicted by ICTR have been granted early release by Meron over the years, according to IBUKA and the Rwandan government.
