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court sentenced to life imprisonment a former Rwandan police officer

A court in France has sentenced to life imprisonment a former Rwandan police officer, after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Philippe…

Avatar image of Solid FM Solid FM•June 29, 2023
(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 14, 2020, "Hotel Rwanda" hero Paul Rusesabagina (C) is escorted by police officers to leave after his pre-trial court session at the Kicukiro Primary court in Kigali, Rwanda. - The United States said on September 20, 2021 it was concerned that Paul Rusesabagina, the "Hotel Rwanda" hero who was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison on terror charges, did not get a fair trial. Rusesabagina, a US Green Card holder, was convicted by a high court in Kigali of involvement in a rebel group blamed for deadly gun, grenade and arson attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)

A court in France has sentenced to life imprisonment a former Rwandan police officer, after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Philippe Hategekimana’s crimes took place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Hutu militias killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The prosecutors had described him as having played a central part in carrying out the killings, not only murdering people but inciting others to do so. Hategekimana, who had worked as a senior gendarme in Nyanza, a town in the south of the country, fled to France after the genocide. He acquired refugee status and French nationality under the name of Philippe Manier.

He had worked as a university security guard in France and fled to Cameroon in 2017 when he heard a complaint had been filed against him. He was arrested in Yaoundé and extradited to France the following year to face trail. It was the fifth such trial in France of an alleged participant in the genocide. The killings of around 800 thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus took place over 100 days in 1994.

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