Three men have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of their brother’s wife, Jane Byiringiro, in a land dispute. Emmanuel Bosco Ndemeye, Amos Ntamugabumwe, and Alex Rwego killed Byiringiro, the wife of Gershom Ndagijimana, and disposed of her body in a river on the night of September 20, 2015, at Sagitwe village, Mabungo Parish, Nyarusiza sub-county in Kisoro District.
Initially, each convict received a 30-year jail term from the lower court. However, the Court of Appeal, led by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera, reduced the sentence to 25 years after deducting the time spent in remand during the trial. Justices Christopher Gashirabake and John Oscar Kihika were also part of the panel.
The Court of Appeal ruled on January 10, 2024, that the 30-year sentence was illegal because the trial judge failed to deduct the period the appellants spent on remand. Justice Buteera ordered the appellants to serve 25 years and six months in prison, effective from November 13, 2018, the date of conviction.
The murder was rooted in a longstanding land dispute between the convicts and their brother, Ndagijimana, who was married to the victim. The conflict escalated due to allegations that Byiringiro and her husband had bewitched the convicts’ mother. The convicts had previously threatened to kill Byiringiro if their mother died. Following the death of the convicts’ mother in August 2015, Byiringiro disappeared in September, and her body was later found in a river.
The Court of Appeal concluded that the threats made by the convicts were consistent with the mode of execution in Byiringiro’s murder. Despite the appellants claiming they were at a different location during the crime, the court ruled that their alibi was undermined by the prosecution’s evidence.
An alibi is a defence strategy asserting that the accused was elsewhere during the commission of the crime. The court rejected the appellants’ argument that the trial judge relied on circumstantial and hearsay evidence, maintaining the High Court’s judgement.
During the appeal hearing, Maclean Kemigisha represented the appellants on state brief, while Chief State Attorney Joseph Kyomuhendo represented the State.
