Paris court of assize: Bucyibaruta is perfectly normal, says the psychological expert

The medico-psychological expert, Jean Luc Ployé affirms during his hearing before the Paris Assize Court that the accused Laurent Bucyibaruta is completely normal and rooted in reality.

This comes after that the request of the defense which had advanced the conclusions aiming at the annulment of the trial got rejected.

“An unfair trial is much worse than the absence of a trial” said Me. Jean Marie BIJU-DUVAL who judges this trial unfair, because this trial comes too late, and the judicial institution have been failing. “The reasonable time was not respected and the accused is in no way responsible” he added. The lawyer listed the various reasons for the delay in judging his client.

Still according to the defense, this delay has consequences for the rights of the accused; sick, old, Bucyibaruta will not be able to defend himself, in addition, his wife is ill and will not be able to come and testify.

The trial goes on…

To the declaration of the civil parties, the defense lawyer Me. Joachim LEVY asks that about the civil parties constitution the rules of law be respected. “It is unthinkable to accept civil parties of victims killed on sites for which my client is not prosecuted” he said; What no one else disputed.

Hearing of Mrs. Agnès Aupetit, personality investigator

The meeting with the accused dates from 2005! The witness recalls the different stages of the career of Mr. Laurent BUcyibaruta, “a reserved man, unaccustomed to talking about himself,” she said.

A refugee in Zaire in 1994, he stayed there for two years before joining the Central African Republic, then France in 1997. “When he heard of the death of two of his children in the Congo camps, he expressed no anger , neither sadness nor sorrow,” added Mrs. Aupetit.

His wife will join him in 1998, followed by two of his refugee children in Zambia, the accused will be denied refugee status. As for his professional career, “he would have suffered it,” noted Mrs. Aupetit.

New series of questions to the accused.

On resumption, Mr. President of the court, Judge Jean Marc Lavergne seeks to learn more about the early years of the accused, his training in Catholic schools including the College of ‘Christ Roi’ in Nyanza, his various meetings with personalities who could have marked Mr. Bucyibaruta such as Alexis Kanyarengwe, Léonidas Rusatira, who would have spoken of the accused, Edouard Karemera, Hormisdas Nsengimana, director of ‘Christ-Roi’, judged in Arusha but acquitted.

So many personalities who have favored the permanent promotions from which the accused was able to benefit, as for Aloys Simba, Bucyibaruta rubbed shoulders with him in Gikongoro in 1994 but he says little about it.

To the discussion on different stages of the defendant’s career: a year in Nigeria, a job at Akagera Park, an appointment as mayor, two posts as sub-prefect in Gisenyi and Butare, finally two posts as prefect , Kibungo and Gikongoro; an exemplary career.

Hearing of Mr. Jean-Luc Ployé, medico-psychological expert

It was in 2000 that the expertise took place, within the prison ‘de la Santé’. The expert recognizes that the accused is intelligent, structured, that he understands quickly and that he has a developed ethical sense.

In Mr. Bucyibaruta’s case, he does not detect any personality disorder or any particular pathology, what surprises the expert is that the accused does not feel any emotional vibration at the mention of the heaviness of the charges. Returning to his professional career, Mr. Ployé recognizes that it has followed a perfect trajectory.

Some personal questions to the accused

President Lavergne takes up a series of rather personal questions to which the accused submits with good grace; in fact, the accused is an affable, courteous, not brittle character, with Judeo-Christian sensitivity.

He rejects, however, that they speak of ‘clientelism’ about him. He knows how to distinguish good from bad, when he does something, he does it in conscience.

The President even feels a certain admiration for a man who, for more than 20 years, submitted with great regularity to the judicial control to which he was subject! That would be so rare!

As for the charges against him, the accused says that they are fabricated from scratch and claims that he is unjustly imprisoned: “I am innocent, it undermines my dignity,” he said.

What Me. Biju-Duval, defense lawyer, underlines in turn by speaking of a ‘magnificent judicial respect’ and concerning his lack of emotionalism, a Rwandan proverb that applies well to his client: ‘The noble walks majestically, even when he suffers’ Proverb which echoes what the accused had quoted: “When a man cries, his tears flow inside.”

The accused is to respond to charges of serious attacks on the life and physical and mental integrity of Tutsi gathered at the ‘ETO’ sites in Murambi, Tutsi prisoners in Gikongoro prison, Tutsi gathered on the sites of Cyanika and Kaduha catholic parishes resulted in more than 120,000 victims, and on the students of the school Marie Merci of Kibého.