CASE N ° RPAA 0024/13 / CS Page |4 The Court’s analysis 12. With regard to mitigating circumstances, Article 76 of Organic Law n ° 01/2012 / OL of 02/05/2012 establishing the Penal Code stipulates that the judge may consider the appropriateness of mitigating circumstances which preceded, accompanied or followed an offence. 13. The Court finds that in the present proceedings Abisi Lambert admits to having raped Teta when she was found in the room sleeping with her little brother asleep. but his allegations that he did not try to escape after the girl’s older sister Umutoni Claire entered the room, found him raping her, and called the Police, cannot not be taken as true because the child's elder sister explained to the Judicial Police that Teta told her that she felt pain in her sex; when asked what had happened, she told her that while she was asleep Lambert came and inserted his fingers in the vagina, and that when she woke up Lambert immediately ran away. Her statement coincides with that of Uwimana Beligne, the girl’s mother, who also testified that Umutoni Claire called her on the phone and told her that Teta was crying so much saying that she has pain in the vagina; when she asked Claire what had happened, Claire told her that Lambert put his fingers in the vagina while she was asleep. Teta also was questioned by the Police and explained that she woke up and found Lambert’s fingers in her vagina, and he immediately ran away. 14. The Court finds that such misrepresentation of the manner in which he was arrested intends to prove that he did not escape arrest even if it was possible, so that in the end his conduct after the offense would be treated as a mitigating circumstance. 15. The Court therefore finds that although he admits the charges against him, these were already supported by overwhelming evidence. The fact that he continues to