Life Sentence For Rwanda Genocide Suspect?

Central Africa, East Africa  |  06.14.10   By PoliticsAfrica Staff

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Monday called for its heaviest sentence, life imprisonment, against a former official accused of organising the massacre of thousands of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.

Dominique Ntawukulilyayo, 68, was the top regional official for the Gisagara region at the time of the genocide and is charged with genocide as well as direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

“The only proper sentence the accused deserves is life imprisonment. There are no mitigating factors in this case,” prosecutor Thembile Segoete said.

According to the prosecution, Ntawukulilyayo personally guided Hutu soldiers in his own vehicle to a group of Tutsis who had escaped attacks from Hutu civilians and found refuge on the top of a hill.

The former official fled Rwanda when the forces of current president, Paul Kagame, ended the genocide.

He was arrested in the French city of Carcassone in October 2007.

Based in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha, the ICTR, whose mandate ends at the end of the year, was set up 15 years ago to try the suspected masterminds of the genocide, which left at least 800,000 people dead

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