Rwandan genocide: Swedish court hands man life sentence
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A Swedish court on Wednesday handed a life sentence to a Rwandan-born man over genocide-related crimes during the 1994 ethnic massacres in the central African country.
A Swedish court on Wednesday handed a life sentence to a Rwandan-born man over genocide-related crimes during the 1994 ethnic massacres in the central African country.
Theodore Tabaro, a Swedish citizen, was convicted of leading and participating in attacks on Tutsi civilians between April and May of 1994 in south-western Rwanda, the Stockholm district court said.
One incident involved a school where about 800 people had sought refuge and were attacked by militants armed with guns, grenades and other weapons. Several hundred people were killed, the ruling said.
Tabaro was also implicated in an attack on a monastery where 60 people were killed.
He was ordered to pay damages to 16 victims.
Though the 49-year-old was cleared on several counts of murder and rape, the court rejected claims by Tabaro’s defence that the investigation was politically motivated and that witnesses were coerced.
Tabaro’s trial opened in September.
It was the Nordic country’s third case related to the 1994 killings in Rwanda, where an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were killed over a 100-day period.
Tabaro was arrested in October 2016, following an extradition request from Rwanda which Stockholm rejected because of his Swedish citizenship.
Judges, prosecutors and investigators travelled to Rwanda as part of the case.
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