Criminal
The 2018 Penal Code, with genocide offences and abolished capital punishment
Law 68/2018 determines offences and penalties, having replaced the 2012 code. Rwanda abolished the death penalty in 2007, replacing it with life imprisonment in special conditions, which was itself a precondition for receiving transfers from the ICTR.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Primary, intermediate and High Courts try offences; the Supreme Court reviews; the International Residual Mechanism handles remaining ICTR matters.
- Deadline — Provisional detention: 5 days renewable once by the prosecutor, then judicial authorisation
- Deadline — Appeal: 30 days from judgment in criminal matters
Governing law
- Law n° 68/2018 determining offences and penalties in general
- Law n° 027/2019 relating to the criminal procedure
- Organic Law n° 08/96 on the organisation of prosecutions for genocidehistorical
In practice
The abolition of capital punishment in 2007 was strategically as well as morally significant: it removed the obstacle to European states and the ICTR transferring genocide suspects to Rwanda for trial. The gacaca courts, which tried over a million genocide cases between 2005 and 2012 using lay judges and community participation, were closed in 2012 and are now of historical rather than current jurisdiction.