A French court has sentenced a former Rwandan doctor to 27 years in prison for crimes related to the country’s 1994 genocide.
Eugene Rwamucyo was found guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity and conspiracy to prepare for those crimes.
Ruwamucho, who was acquitted of genocide and crimes against humanity, denies any wrongdoing. Local media reported that his lawyers said they planned to appeal.
His trial is the eighth in France related to the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were killed by the Hutu majority.
Prosecution lawyer Nicolas Peron said there was no evidence that Ruwamucho personally carried out summary executions or torture.
But he said the 65-year-old should not “evade responsibility” because people can “kill people with words”.
Prosecutors accused Rwamucho, who was born to a Hutu family, of spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda.
They also cited eyewitness testimony accusing him of helping bury victims in mass graves “in a last-ditch effort to destroy evidence of the genocide”.
Prosecutors asked for a 30-year sentence, while survivor representatives called for a life sentence.
Angélique Uwamahoro, 13, who was 13 during the genocide, said she saw Rwamucho at a roadblock in the town of Butare and heard him encouraging militiamen to kill, according to the Associated Press Tutsi people.
“He wanted to incite them to kill us so we wouldn’t get out alive,” she said.
But Ruwamucho told the court: “I assure you that I did not order the killing of the survivors nor did I allow them to be killed.”
His lawyers argued that he participated in the mass burials because he wanted to avoid the “health crisis” that would occur if they were not buried.
They said he was being prosecuted for disagreeing with Rwanda’s current government.
Light Arrested in Sanoit, north of Paris, in 2010 After attending the funeral of a former Rwandan official convicted of war crimes during the genocide.
In December, former doctor Sosthene Munyemana Sentenced to 24 years in prison by French court Includes crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. He was accused of organizing torture and killings during the genocide.
