Army chief jailed for genocide
The United Nations tribunal for Rwanda today convicted a former senior military officer of genocide and acquitted two other suspects, including a former transport minister, a tribunal spokesman said in Arusha, Tanzania.
Former Lieutenant Samuel Imanishimwe was sentenced to 27 years in prison on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, said the tribunal’s Roland Amoussouga.
The court ruled that Imanishimwe, as army commander of a south-western Rwandan region, failed to stop his soldiers from taking part in the massacre of thousands of civilians in 1994.
The court acquitted former transport minister Andre Ntagerura and Emmanuel Bagambiki, a local civilian official in southwestern Rwanda, Amoussouga said.
“The prosecutor did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two had taken part in the genocide, Amoussouga,” said.
More than half a million Rwandans, mostly minority Tutsis, were slaughtered in the 100-day genocide orchestrated by a regime run by extremists from the Hutu majority.
