The Cour d’assises de Paris handed late Tuesday, a 20-year jail sentence to Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former senior administrative official in Gikongoro (South), for his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Bucyibaruta has faced genocide, extermination as a crime against humanity.
The defendant was accused of masterminding the massacre of Tutsis in Gikongoro sectors of Murambi, Cyanika, Kaduha, Kibeho, Gikongoro prison, Murambi technical school in Southern Rwanda.
He denied the charges.
The jury that was presided over by Judge Jean Marc Lavergne ruled that he is guilty of complicity in the genocide and crimes against humanity.
The court particularly found that by virtue of his position and authority, Bucyibaruta committed crimes of complicity in the genocide against humanity that happened at Ecole Marie-Merci in Kibeho.
He was however, cleared on all charges related to genocide that occurred in Kibeho where the prosecution accused him of participating in the death of over 28,000 people.
Throughout the hearing, the UN prosecutors had accused him of criminal liability by commanding duties, where in capacity and performance as a person responsible for ensuring order and public law had the authority to request the intervention of the army
Prosecutors also accused him of complicity in crimes of genocide as a person by virtue of a position which suggests he had full control of the Interahamwe and exercised control over them and other members of the MRND political party in Gikongoro prefecture.
Also the prosecution had accused him of incitement stating that a few days after the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana, Bucyibaruta went around in the area of Gikongoro town in a car with a megaphone inciting Hutus.
He had said those who had killed the president were Tutsis who must be hunted down and killed.
The indictment papers to Laurent Bucyibaruta were issued in 2007 after fleeing the country in 1997.
Bucyibaruta’s final trial lasted 2 months but he was in court for the last 10 years.
CU/as/APA