Former Rwandan genocide convict faces further interrogation by Tanzanian authorities

Tanzanian authorities said on Tuesday they have taken to commercial capital Dar es Salaam the former convict of the disbanded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for further questioning.

The former convict, Innocent Sagahutu, was arrested recently in Kagera region by immigration officials while attempting to cross into Burundi.

Abdallah Tiwo, a senior immigration officer in Kagera region in northwestern Tanzania, said the former Rwandan army officer was being questioned as why he travelled out of Arusha without special travel documents.

He added that Sagahutu, who was arrested two weeks ago, was found without valid documents at the border with Burundi while trying to get into the neigboring country from Ngara district.

Sagahutu recently completed a 15 year jail sentence for his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where close to one million people were massacred.

He is among scores of the Rwandan nationals who were indicted by ICTR and either served their jail terms or were acquitted but have not found a country to host them because they feared returning home.

For the past two weeks he had been held for interrogation by immigration officers in Bukoba but has now been transferred to the Immigration headquarters in Dar es Salaam for further interrogation.

Last week, Ally Dady, the Kagera Regional Immigration Officer, said they arrested Sagahutu in Ngara district while he was attempting to cross into Burundi.

Dady said Sagahutu tried to cross into Burundi without valid papers, something that led to his arrest.

The immigration officer said Sagahutu had completed a 15-year jail term for his role in the massacre.

Dady said after serving his sentence, Sagahutu could not immediately find a country that would have hosted him, adding that he needed special clearance to travel out of Arusha in northern Tanzania.

Dady said Sagahutu did not possess the required documents that could have enabled him to travel out of Arusha or elsewhere.

However, Sagahutu claimed he had all papers which allowed him to travel out of Arusha region.

Sagahutu said the Immigration officers at Ngara could not read them well and that was why he was detained there for 11 days.

He added that the documents have the clearance from the United Nations offices in Tanzania, noting that he was travelling to Burundi to see his relatives.

Sagahutu added that in the recent past the same clearance permits have seen him travelling to Mozambique and Switzerland "without any problem or causing harm to anybody."

Sagahutu was among 10 Rwandan nationals who were yet to find countries to host them after serving their jail sentences for their role in the Rwanda genocide or after being acquitted.

Most of them were living in a special detention facility of the UN in Arusha. Endit