Sister Gertrude, who was mother superior at the convent near Butare when the massacres occurred, had previously directed the choir at the choir at Sovu, where she took her orders. I still have nightmares. If convicted, the four accused could face life in prison. More than 500,000 Tutsis and Hutus were slain The two nuns have been living in a convent in the Belgian town of Maredret. Ntezimana and Higaniro also live in Belgium.
Defence lawyers say their clients are innocent.
Serge Wahis, lawyer for the nuns, said the two women were the victims of quarrels within their convent and the targets of revenge. He said witnesses to the massacre blamed the nuns because they the nuns were thought to have done nothing to help the victims. Lawyers for Ntezimana and Higaniro said the case against the two men could not stand because it was previously rejected due to lack of evidence by the International Tribunal Court for Rwanda established in Tanzania in 1996. The trial against the four defendants is the first such case to go to jury trial outside the central African country. The suspects are the first to be charged under a relatively new Belgian law that allows individuals, including non-Belgians, to be tried in Belgium for war crimes committed elsewhere.