Former Rwandan military policeman sentenced to life in prison in France

GOOBJOOG NEWS | PARIS: A French court has sentenced a Rwandan ex-military policeman to life in prison after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity charges.

Philippe Hategekimana, 66 was found guilty of nearly all the charges against him over the 1994 slaughter in his home country.

Plaintiffs accused Hategekimana of “using the powers and military force conferred to him through his rank in order to take part in the genocide, claims which he denied.

Hategekiman had fled to France after the genocide, obtaining refugee status and then French nationality under the name Philippe Manier before fleeing to Cameroon where he was arrested in March 2018 under an international warrant issued by French magistrates specialising in crimes against humanity.

More than 800,000 people were killed between April and July 1994 according to UN figures, most of them from the Tutsi minority.

France, one of the top destinations for fugitives from the massacres, has also tried and convicted a former spy chief, two ex-mayors, a former hotel chauffeur and an ex-top official in similar trials since 2014.

But it has generally refused requests to extradite suspects to Rwanda, prompting President Paul Kagame to accuse Paris of denying Rwanda jurisdiction.