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Man sentenced in Germany’s first Rwandan genocide trial

A former mayor has been handed down a 14 year jail sentence, after being found guilty of aiding genocide in a landmark trial in Germany.

56-year-old Onesphore Rwabukombe was sentenced in a Frankfurt court, after being found guilty of organising a massacre in a church that left as many as 1,200 people dead, during the 1994 genocide.

This is the first time that German courts have sought to tackle suspects accused of taking part in the genocide, that left around 800,000 dead.

The accused has lived in Germany since 2002, ever since being granted asylum. He was held in custody since 2010, with Germany trying him under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Having ruled that extraditing him to Rwanda would not guarantee a fair trial, and international courts in The Hague not requesting to take on the case, German courts took it on.

See more from Deutsche Welle here.

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