A French court on Wednesday sentenced former Rwandan doctor Sosthene Munyemana to 24 years in prison for his involvement in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in his native East African country.
After a deliberation lasting nearly 15 hours, the 68-year-old former gynaecologist was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and participation in a conspiracy to prepare those crimes
He is the sixth suspect to have faced trial in France over the 1994 massacres in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in 100 days of mass killings
The six-week-long trial at the Assize Court in Paris came nearly three decades after a complaint was filed against Munyemana in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux in 1995.
Munyemana, who was impassive as the verdict was handed down, was immediately incarcerated.
His lawyers said they planned to appeal the verdict, slamming the court’s decision as “unacceptable”.
They argued that major contradictions in the defence testimonies left “room for doubt”.
The public prosecutor had sought a sentence of 30 years, arguing the “sum total” of his choices showed “the traits of a genocidaire”.
Munyemana was accused of helping draft a letter of support for the then interim government, which encouraged the massacre of the Tutsis.
He was also accused of helping set up roadblocks to round people up and keeping them in inhumane conditions in local government offices before they were killed in the southern Rwandan prefecture of Butare, where he lived at the time.
During the trial, Munyemana repeatedly disputed the accusations, claiming he had been a moderate Hutu who had tried to “save” Tutsis by offering them “refuge” in local government offices
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