Rwandan man sentenced to life in prison for role in genocide

By Levon Sevunts Oct 30, 2009, 20:08 GMT

Montreal - A Rwandan man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years by a Canadian court for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Desire Munyaneza, 42, was the first person to be convicted under a law that allows Canadian residents to be tried for of war crimes committed abroad. He was found guilty in May of seven charges, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for rape and slaughter of countless Tutsis in Butare, the second largest city in Rwanda.

About 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the 1994 genocide.

'The evidence shows that many Rwandans, from all ethnic backgrounds, were courageous during the genocide some of them paying for it with their lives,' Quebec Superior Court Justice Andre Denis told a packed courtroom in Montreal on Thursday.

'The accused, an educated and privileged man, chose to kill, rape and pillage, vaunting the superiority of his ethnic group reminding us again that every time a man claims to be part of a superior race, a chosen people, humanity is in danger.'

With time already served in pre-trial detention, Munyaneza will be eligible for release in 21 years.

The precedent setting sentence is the toughest possible under Canadian law and was welcomed by members of Canada's Rwandan community.

Jean-Paul Nyilinkwaya, a Montreal-based Rwandan community organizer who lost his father during the 1994 genocide, said the sentence sends a message to war criminals trying to hide in Canada.

'It's not just the people who committed the genocide in Rwanda. Everybody who has committed a war crime or a crime against humanity anywhere in the world knows now that Canada is not a safe haven for them,' Nyilinkwaya said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The son of a wealthy Hutu businessman, Munyaneza fled to Canada in 1997, but was denied refugee status. He remained in Toronto until he was arrested in 2005 after being recognized by members of the local Rwandan community who reported him to police.

The multi-million-dollar trial took more than two years to complete and involved hearings in Montreal, as well as depositions in Rwanda, Kenya and France. Sixty-six witnesses testified at the trial, including Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, who commanded UN peacekeepers in Rwanda in 1994. Many of the witnesses testified behind closed doors for fear of reprisals.

Judge Denis said that he believed the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses more than those presented by the defence.

Munyaneza's attorney Richard Perras told reporters outside the courtroom that he is going to appeal both the verdict and the sentence.

Because Munyaneza's case is the first of its kind, legal experts believe the appeal could eventually end up before the Supreme Court.