[JURIST] Dutch prosecutors have charged a Rwandan immigrant arrested in Amsterdam with committing war crimes and torture in Rwanda, officials said Thursday. Specifically, prosecutors alleged that "Joseph M." ordered the killing of several Tutsis that were dragged out of an ambulance and shot during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [HRW backgrounder]. The defendant, who was arrested earlier this week, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Dutch law permits the prosecution of persons residing in the Netherlands who are accused of committing war crimes in foreign nations. Since 2005, two other defendants have been prosecuted by the same team of Dutch detectives who arrested Joseph M. on Monday. In June, a Dutch court convicted [JURIST report] a former arms dealer of violating the UN embargo against former Liberian President Charles Taylor's government, and in December, a Dutch court sentenced a Dutch businessman to 15 years [JURIST report] in prison for complicity in war crimes for selling chemicals used to produce poison gas to the government of Saddam Hussein. AP has more.