DAR ES SALAAM- The U.N. war crimes tribunal for Rwanda sentenced former minister Callixte Nzabonimana to life in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty of playing a key role in his country’s 1994 genocide.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Arusha in Tanzania, convicted the former Rwandan Minister of Youth and Associate Movements for genocide, conspiracy, incitement and extermination as a crime against humanity.
“The trial chamber found that … Nzabonimana instigated the killing of Tutsis. It also found Nzabonimana guilty of entering into two separate agreements to kill Tutsis,” ICTR said in a statement.
The former Rwandan politician, 59, was arrested in Tanzania in February 2008.
Ethnic Hutu militia and soldiers butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in the tiny east African country in just 100 days between April and June 1994.
