By Associated Press
KIGALI — A government official says a prominent Rwandan academic has been sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of genocide.
Rwandan Prosecutor General John Bosco Mutangana said Saturday that Leopold Munyakazi was convicted Friday by a court in the south of the East African country. Munyakazi was accused of playing a key role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
Munyakazi was extradited from the United States last year. He had maintained his innocence.
Munyakazi, an ethnic Hutu who was a college professor at the time of the genocide, had opposed his transfer to Rwanda, arguing he would not get a fair trial since the country now has a Tutsi-led government.
