The Trial Chamber convicted Ngirumpatse for aiding and abetting genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity, and murder. The acts of aiding and abetting included the distribution of weapons and the issuance of a letter and instructions. As part of its holding, the Appeals Chamber found that the Trial Chamber erred in finding that the only reasonable inference to be drawn from the presence of the accused at the hotel where arms were distributed was that the accused consented to the distribution of weapons and erred in concluding that the accused therefore aided and abetted the killings. The Appeals Chamber reversed accordingly.
1. “[M]aterial assistance, by encouragement or through moral support” that “has a substantial effect on the perpetration of the crime” (Trial Judgment, ¶ 429)
Evidentiary requirement: The Appeals Chamber recalled that a trial chamber “may infer the existence of a particular fact upon which the guilt of the accused depends from circumstantial evidence only if it is the only reasonable conclusion that could be drawn from the evidence presented” (¶ 380).