A man who was seen as a key organiser of the Rwandan genocide has had his sentence reduced from life to 35 years.<\/p>\n
Theoneste Bagosora was a senior figure in Rwanda’s ministry of defence at the time of the massacres.<\/p>\n
In 1994 around 800,000 people – mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group – were killed in just 100 days.<\/p>\n
The UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted Bagosora of genocide and crimes against humanity three years ago.<\/p>\n
He was arrested 15 years ago in Cameroon and his trial at the Rwanda tribunal in the Tanzanian city of Arusha began in 2002.<\/p>\n
Appeal judges in Arusha cleared him of some of the charges he faced, including ordering killings at roadblocks in the capital, Kigali.<\/p>\n
But his convictions for genocide and crimes against humanity were upheld.
Co-accused to be freed<\/p>\n
In 1994, Bagosora was chief of staff in the ministry of defence and effectively in charge of the soldiers who took part in the massacres.<\/p>\n
The killings began after the plane carrying Rwanda’s then-President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down on 6 April 1994, killing everyone on board.<\/p>\n
The appeals court found that he knew the crimes were going to be committed and did nothing to stop them, the AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n
At his trial, Bagosora, who is a Hutu, maintained he was a victim of propaganda by Rwanda’s current Tutsi-dominated government.<\/p>\n
Bagosora is 70 years old. With time already served, his 35-year sentence will see him imprisoned until he is 89.<\/p>\n
One of the men convicted alongside Bagosora, Anatole Nsengiyumva, has had his sentence reduced on appeal to 15 years, and will be released because of time served, says AFP. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man who was seen as a key organiser of the Rwandan genocide has had his sentence reduced from life to 35 years. Theoneste Bagosora was a senior figure in Rwanda’s ministry of defence at the time of the massacres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n