Simon Bikindi

Verdict and imprisonment

In December 2008, Bikindi was sentenced to 15 years in prison with credit for 7 years already served, for incitement to commit genocide. The conviction stemmed from the fact that the court considered it proved beyond reasonable doubt that towards the end of June 1994 he had made a speech from an Interahamwe vehicle equipped with a public address system, urging and subsequently reminding the Hutu population to exterminate all Tutsis, whom he referred to as "snakes". All the other charges were dismissed; in particular, the court considered that while some songs had an inciting character, they had all been written before 1994, thus before the genocide, and that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that Bikindi had played a role in the dissemination of his songs on radio during the genocide, or that he had personally engaged in killings or organising of militias.

Bikindi was released in 2016, having served the full length of his sentence.

Reception The trial had been considered problematic because of the troubling possibility of an artist being arbitrarily prosecuted for his work, art being open to a variety of interpretations. The verdict, however, successfully avoided this controversial issue, as it was not based on Bikindi's songs.

Personal life and character At the time of the genocide, Bikindi had a relationship with Angeline Mukabanana, a Tutsi. In an interview for The New York Times in 2008, she expressed her opinion that Bikindi hated no one and was simply an opportunist, too eager to please. She cited the fact that Bikindi had adopted her son, who had a Tutsi father, and had helped their Tutsi neighbours against Hutu murderers. Mukabanana claimed that after Bikindi wrote "I hate these Hutus", she asked him why he had written that and pointed out the possibility of the RPF's winning the war. He allegedly answered: "The government obliges me to write these songs. If I hear the RPF is coming to Kigali next month, I'll write a song for them." Some reports state that he died of diabetes while another states that he died of prostate cancer.