The Trial Chamber found the Appellants guilty of, inter alia, aiding and abetting genocide and extermination by storing weapons and setting up roadblocks that identified Tutsi civilians subsequently killed. The Appeals Chamber affirmed the convictions of Ngeze for aiding and abetting genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity.
The Appellants’ expressing satisfaction over broadcasts of the killing of Tutsis could not alone constitute a finding of the actus reus of aiding and abetting, however (¶ 493).
1. “[A]cts or omissions aimed specifically at assisting, furthering or lending moral support to the perpetration of a specific crime” that “substantially contributed to the perpetration of the crime”
2. “[K]nowledge that acts performed by the aider and abettor assist in the commission of the crime by the principal” (¶ 482)
ACTUS REUS: “[T]o convict a defendant of aiding and abetting another in the commission of a crime, it is unnecessary to prove that he had authority over that other person; it is sufficient to prove that the defendant’s acts or omissions substantially contributed to the commission of the crime by the principal perpetrator” (¶ 672).