Following his trial and conviction at UN Tribunal Theoneste Bagosora has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Bagosora was convicted of instigating Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Bagosora led a committee that plotted the massacre of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
It is the first time the Rwanda tribunal has convicted anyone of organising the killings.
The genocide in Rwanda claimed the lives of more than 800,000 people.
Along with Bagosora, former military commanders Anatole Nsegiyumva and Alloys Ntabakuze were also found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and given life sentences.
The defence lodged by Bagosora and his co-defendants was that the killings were not organised and therefore did not amount to genocide. This defence was rejected by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Tanzania.
Bagosora is expected to appeal against the guilty verdict.
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