A French court has jailed a Rwandan citizen for 27 years over his part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which over 800, 000 people were slaughtered.
The judges found Eugène Rwamucyo, 65 guilty of taking part in the Rwandan genocide, and complicit in crimes against humanity.
The genocide targeted mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus following the death in a plane crash of president Juvenal Habyarimana.
The death of Habyarimana, a Hutu was widely seen as a Tutsi-orchestrated event which triggered the genocide.
Rwamucyo was also found to have been a conspirator for genocide crimes including spreading propaganda and attempts to compromise evidence of the crime.
Nicolas Peron the main prosecutor of the case claimed that although Rwamucyo did not physically conducted the killings or torture, he used propaganda which spurred perpetrators to seek and kill victims.
Peron said as a result of Rwamucyo’s ”killing with words” he should be held accountable for his actions including burying the victims in mass graves and thereby removing any trace of evidence of the crimes committed during the 100-day massacre.
The prosecution had called for Rwamucyo to be jailed for 30 years but genocide survivors had urged the court to pass a stiffer sentence of life imprisonment.
The former doctor whose lawyers say they will challenge the judge’s decision has denied any role in the genocide.
This is the eighth genocide case in France.
WN/as/APA
