Former Rwandan doctor Sosthene Munyemana was on Wednesday jailed for 24 years by a French court for his involvement in the 1994 Tutsi genocide.
The 68-year-old gynecologist was found guilty of crimes against humanity, genocide and participating in a conspiracy to prepare those crimes.
The father of three is the sixth person to stand trial in France for the 1994 atrocities, which killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over the course of 100 days.
The six-week trial at the Paris Assize Court began nearly three decades after a complaint against Munyemana was made in Bordeaux in 1995.
‘Steered the genocide’
Reading the verdict, the judge said Munyemana was part of a group that “prepared, organised and steered the genocide of the Tutsis … on a daily basis”.
Among the accusations against Munyemana were claims he helped set up roadblocks to gather people who were then held in inhumane conditions before being killed in the southern Rwandan prefecture of Buatre, where he lived.
Munyemana was also accused of helping draft a letter of support for the then interim government, which encouraged the massacre of the minority Tutsis.
He has repeatedly denied the accusations against him, claiming to have been a moderate Hutu who tried to “save” Tutsis by offering them “refuge” in local government offices.
Munyemana was close to Jean Kambanda, the head of the interim government established after the plane carrying then-president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down by a missile in 1994.
Kambanda is serving a life sentence imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for his role in the genocide.
Since 2014, France has tried and convicted six other figures including a former spy chief, two ex-mayors and a former hotel chauffeur.
The trials were based on the idea of universal jurisdiction, in which any country can prosecute crimes against humanity, regardless of where the crimes took place.
Munyemana's lawyers say they plan to appeal the verdict.
