Rwandan gets 30 years for genocide

2011-09-30 17:01

Arusha - Two former Rwandan ministers were jailed Friday for 30 years by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for involvement in the central African country's 1994 genocide.

Former public service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and his then trade counterpart Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide.

The Tanzania-based tribunal, however, acquitted two other ministers charged with similar offences due to lack of evidence.

Friday's sentencing came 12 years since the former ministers were arrested. Their trial started in 2003 and wrapped up five years later.

One of the judges said the convicted suspects should have had their sentences reduced by five years because the trial had dragged on for long.

All four ex-ministers, who denied the charges, were accused of calling for the massacre of Tutsis during several meetings they held across Rwanda and in public speeches, some of which were aired on radio.

The ICTR, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, was established in late 1994 to try the key perpetrators of the 1994 massacre which claimed some 800,000 lives, mainly minority Tutsis, in a span of 100 days.

- SAPA