Actor acquitted of genocide
2009-12-16 22:20
Kigali - A renowned Rwandan actor sentenced to 19 years for genocide by the country's traditional gacaca courts was acquitted on Wednesday on appeal, state radio announced.
Dismas Mukeshabatware was sentenced on October 28 on charges of murdering a woman and her three children in 1994 in the southern town of Butare.
A gacaca appeals court in Butare ruled that he "played no role in the killing" and "ordered his immediate release", Radio Rwanda reported.
Mukeshabatware was a member of Radio Rwanda's renowned Indamutsa theatre troupe for which he wrote plays and acted in leading roles.
The gacaca courts are empowered to try those who participated in the killings and can hand down sentences ranging from community service to life in prison.
However, the suspected masterminds of the genocide are being tried by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sits in Arusha, Tanzania.
Rwanda's 1994 genocide claimed the lives of some 800 000 people, mainly Tutsis killed by extremist Hutu militia, in the space of 100 days.