Rwanda court orders suspected serial killer held for 30 days

A Rwandan court on Tuesday ordered a suspected serial killer detained for 30 days pending trial after multiple bodies were found buried in a hole in his kitchen.

Denis Kazungu, 34, has admitted to killing 14 people, prosecutors say, and was indicted last week on charges including murder, rape, forgery, impersonation and desecration of human corpses.

The case has shocked the nation and hundreds of people thronged the courthouse in Kigali for Tuesday’s hearing, including relatives and friends of the victims.

Kazungu had pleaded guilty at last week’s court hearing, saying he had killed his victims because they had infected him with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“Kazungu has not shown remorseful behaviour and yet he even pleaded guilty to the crimes he is accused of. Court orders that Kazungu is detained for 30 days pending his trial,” the judge said Tuesday.

‘My family deserves justice’

A handcuffed Kazungu was brought to the courthouse in a prison van and roundly booed as two policemen escorted him inside.

A relative of one victim was dragged out of court by police after he shouted at the defendant “Kazungu you dog! You killed my  daughter you dog!”

“We want nothing but justice. My family deserves justice for the murder of my sister,” Nadine Ahishakiye, the younger sister of one of the victims, Phanny Tuyizere, 27, told AFP.

Kazungu was detained earlier this month after police discovered 12 bodies in a hole in the kitchen of his rented home in a Kigali suburb where he lived alone.

Prosecutors said at last week’s hearing that he had admitted to killing 14 people, all but one of them women, and had dissolved two of his victims whose remains had not yet been found.

Identity theft

According to prosecutors, he stole the identity of the only male victim and used his name when hunting his prey.

Last week, Kazungu asked the court to hold the hearings in his case behind closed doors, a request denied by the judge.

Kazungu had initially been arrested in July on suspicion of robbery and rape among other offences but was granted bail due to a lack of evidence, police have said.

When the suspect was arrested, a police source told AFP he had confessed that he learned to kill his victims, most of them sex workers, from watching films about notorious serial killers.

Media reports in Rwanda said Kazungu had held various jobs, including as an English teacher.