[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website] Monday sentenced [ICTR press release] a former witness to nine months in prison for contempt of court and giving false testimony before the tribunal. The witness, who was only identified as GAA, pleaded guilty to giving false testimony during the 2004 trial of former Rwandan Higher Education Minister Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda [TrialWatch profile]. In 2004, Kamuhanda received two life sentences [IRIN report] for genocide and extermination. The UN News Centre has more.

The ICTR recently announced that it will be unable to complete its work [JURIST report] before its mandate expires in December 2008. The ICTR was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, died.