On March 12, 2008, the Appeals Court of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced Athanase Seromba to imprisonment for the remainder of his life for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Seromba, a member of the Hutu tribe, was formerly a priest. Prosecutors alleged that after approximately 1,500 Tutsis sought refuge in his church, Seromba ordered that it be demolished by bulldozers. Everyone inside the church died. After the massacre, Seromba fled, but surrendered to the ICTR in February 2002. He pled not guilty but was convicted after trial. He is facing excommunication by the Vatican.

Seromba was initially sentenced to a 15-year term. Both Seromba and the Office of the Prosecution appealed. Through Shearman & Sterling’s longstanding externship at the ICTR’s Office of the Prosecutor, several Shearman & Sterling associates assisted in the research and writing of the appellate brief on this appeal.

Counsel Miko Bradford (London-Finance) and associates Ajay Chanayil (New York-Antitrust), William Hauptman (New York-Litigation), Maxwell Morgan (New York-Litigation), and Tania Steenkamp (Paris-International Arbitration) each assisted the Office of the Prosecutor on the appeal during their month in Tanzania.

According to Hauptman, “Observing how lawyers from all over the world navigated the many legal and cultural differences among them was remarkable. It was frequently slow and procedure-laden, but you definitely had the sense that the procedures were an important part of the process and that history was being made.”