The former Rwandan army chief of staff was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his actions during the country’s 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed.
The United Nations tribunal, which was established to prosecute those responsible for the Rwandan genocide, found Augustin Bizimungu guilty of numerous crimes against humanity including of six counts of genocide.
The court found that Bizimungu had full control over his subordinates despite claims by his defense that he was not in control of the underlings who carried out the killings.
The tribunal also convicted three other senior Rwandan officials and gave 20-year sentences to Rwandan army battalion commander Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and his subordinate Innocent Sagahutu.
The third official convicted was the head of the Rwandan gendarmerie but he will be released after the court deemed that he had already served enough time since his arrest in 2000, according to intelligence news agency, ISRIA.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) deals with the trials of those with the most responsibility for the genocide, thousands of minor members of the leadership are being tried in Rwandan courts or through traditional justice system, BBC reported.
The genocide, began when the plane of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down April 6, 1994 . The Hutus accused an ethnic Tustsi group of shooting the plane and began a violent campaign to eradicate the Tutsi civilian minority
The United Nations tribunal, which was established to prosecute those responsible for the Rwandan genocide, found Augustin Bizimungu guilty of numerous crimes against humanity including of six counts of genocide.
The court found that Bizimungu had full control over his subordinates despite claims by his defense that he was not in control of the underlings who carried out the killings.
The tribunal also convicted three other senior Rwandan officials and gave 20-year sentences to Rwandan army battalion commander Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and his subordinate Innocent Sagahutu.
The third official convicted was the head of the Rwandan gendarmerie but he will be released after the court deemed that he had already served enough time since his arrest in 2000, according to intelligence news agency, ISRIA.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) deals with the trials of those with the most responsibility for the genocide, thousands of minor members of the leadership are being tried in Rwandan courts or through traditional justice system, BBC reported.
The genocide, began when the plane of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down April 6, 1994 . The Hutus accused an ethnic Tustsi group of shooting the plane and began a violent campaign to eradicate the Tutsi civilian minority
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