A former senior Rwandan official has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the 1994 genocide, Radio Rwanda reported on Thursday. Augustin Hategeka, district administrator of the central Gitarama region and elected mayor of Muhanga until he resigned in 2007, was convicted on Wednesday by a traditional gacaca court. The court in Gitarama found him guilty of leading several teachers to their death during the slaughter of about 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus by Hutu troops and extremist militias in April-June 2004. The teachers were sheltering in a building belonging to the Roman Catholic church and Hategeka lured them out into a vehicle by promising to take them to a place where they would be paid their wages, but instead they were killed. The gacaca courts combine modern law with old-style village assemblies where elders would settle disputes. Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama on Tuesday said they had so far tried almost 1.5 million suspects. The alleged ringleaders at national level are being tried by a separate International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sits in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania.

AFP

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