Rwandan lawyer sentenced to life

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An ex-Rwandan deputy prosecutor accused of participating in the genocide of 1994 has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Rwandan tribunal.

Simeon Nshamihigo was arrested in 2001 while working as a defence investigator at the tribunal under an assumed name.

He was identified by a witness at another trial taking place at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Tanzania.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days in 1994.

Nshamihigo's lawyer says he will appeal against the sentence.

The former prosecutor of Cyangugu province had pleaded not guilty to four charges including ordering the killing of a priest at a roadblock and taking part in a church massacre.

He exhibited zeal in the perpetration of these grave crimes ICTR statement He was also said to have given Interahamwe members food and beers for participating in the slaughter.

The judges found that he also attended meetings where massacres were planned "especially the transfer of Tutsi refugees to the Kamarampaka stadium and the subsequent removal of some of them who were killed", an ICTR statement said.

"Among the aggravating factors in this case, the Chamber notes that Simeon Nchamihigo, as a deputy prosecutor of Cyangugu Prefecture, was in a prominent public position of trust; yet he exhibited zeal in the perpetration of these grave crimes," it said.

Since The ICTR was set up in 1997 to try the most high-profile genocide cases 28 have been completed and five people have been acquitted.