A former Rwandan police officer, Philippe Hategekimana, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in France.
He was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where Hutu militias massacred hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Prosecutors presented evidence showing Hategekimana’s significant involvement in the killings, both through direct acts of murder and by inciting others to commit atrocities.
After the genocide, Hategekimana, who held a senior position as a gendarme in Nyanza, a town in southern Rwanda, fled to France. He obtained refugee status and later acquired French nationality under the name Philippe Manier.
He worked as a security guard at a university in France until 2017 when he fled to Cameroon upon learning that a complaint had been filed against him. He was arrested in Yaoundé and extradited to France the following year to face trial.
This trial marked the fifth instance in France where an alleged participant in the Rwandan genocide was prosecuted.
The genocide, which lasted for 100 days in 1994, resulted in the killings of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.