A French court has sentenced Sosthene Munyemana, a former doctor in Rwanda, to 24 years in jail for his role in the 1994 genocide in the African nation.
Munyemana was found guilty of crimes like genocide and crimes against humanity linked to the mass killings where nearly 800,000 people lost their lives in a span of three months.
It took French prosecutors nearly three decades to bring this case to trial.
Munyemana, who was a gynaecologist in Butare, southern Rwanda during the genocide, was accused of orchestrating torture, setting up roadblocks to gather people, and subjecting them to inhumane conditions in local government offices before their execution.
The majority of those who were killed belonged to the Tutsi ethnic group. Munyemana denied the accusations during the trial, claiming he was a moderate Hutu striving to protect Tutsis by offering them shelter in government offices.
The judge, however, stated that Munyemana was part of a group that actively planned and executed the genocide against the Tutsis on a daily basis.
Munyemana had relocated to France in 1994, residing in the country’s southwest where he practiced as a doctor until his recent retirement. A complaint was filed against him in Bordeaux in 1995.
Munyemana had close ties with Jean Kambanda, an interim prime minister during the genocide, who is currently serving a life sentence in Mali for his involvement in the atrocities.
The genocide was triggered by the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994.
His death led to widespread violence, targeting political opposition members, and swiftly escalated into the brutal massacre of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives within a short span of time.
Source-BBC
