French court jails Rwandan ex-doctor for 24 years over genocide

A former Rwandan doctor has been jailed for 24 years by a French court for his involvement in the 1994 genocide.

Sosthene Munyemana was on Wednesday found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and participation in a conspiracy to prepare these crimes.

The 68-year-old former gynecologist was accused of helping draft a letter for the interim government that supervised the killings of Tutsis.

He was also accused of participating in meetings that organised round-ups of Tutsi civilians in the southern Rwandan prefecture of Butare, where he lived at the time.

Mr Munyemana, who moved to France months after the genocide ended, denied any wrongdoing and his lawyers said they planned to appeal the verdict.

The public prosecutor had sought a jail sentence of 30 years during the six-week-long trial at the Assize Court in Paris.

Elsewhere, a court in Brussels on Tuesday found two other Rwandans guilty of genocide and war crimes committed in their native country.

Séraphin Twahirwa and Pierre Basabosé were found to have committed multiple murders and attempted murders of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Kigali between April and July 1994.

Their sentencing is set for Thursday.