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Rwanda: genocide suspect gets life in jail for hatred speech

Xinhua, April 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Rwandan court on Friday sentenced a genocide suspect, who was deported from Canada, to life in jail after finding him guilty of multiple charges.

The High Court in Kigali found Leon Mugesera guilty of inciting the masses to commit genocide, inciting ethnic hatred and persecution as a crime against humanity.

The former Canada Laval University lecturer was deported from Quebec in January, 2012, after exhausting all legal avenues.

Reading the verdict, Judge Antoine Muhima said the sentence is based on evidence of 1992 speech Mugesera made in western Rwanda during a party meeting, inciting Hutus to kill the Tutsi minority.

The court stated that Mugesera's incriminating speech meant to rally the population to eliminate Tutsi by sending them back to Ethiopia through River Nyabarongo, and to dissuade the ruling party from participating in Arusha Peace Accord.

The court heard that killings broke out shortly in Kamonyi and Bigogwe areas after his speech.

The court also heard that Mugesera called on Hutus to exterminate Tutsi everywhere, branding them spies for the then rebel group Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF).

The convict, who had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, objected to the verdict, and has up to 30 days to appeal.

Mugesera was a lecturer of languages at the former National University of Rwanda in 1992. He was also the vice chairman for genocidal political party, MRND, in western Rwanda. Endit