[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] announced Wednesday that Rwandan genocide suspect and former Hutu militia leader Bernard Munyagishari was transferred from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the UN Detention Facility in Tanzania on Tuesday. He is set to make his initial appearance before the ICTR to answer to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape. He is alleged to have recruited, trained and led a militia group that killed and raped Tutsi women during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Munyagishari was arrested [JURIST report] last month in the DRC. Nine major perpetrators of the 1994 genocide remain at-large.

Earlier last month, the ICTR convicted [JURIST report] former Rwandan army chief Augustin Bizimungu and three others. Bizimungu was sentenced to 30 years in prison while two others, Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye and Innocent Sagahutu, to 20 years in prison and Augustin Ndindiliyimana to time served since his arrest in 2000. Bizimungu was found guilty on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for murder, extermination and rape in addition to violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions [text]. Last December, the ICTR sentenced [JURIST report] former Rwandan Armed Forces lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana to life imprisonment after convicting him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The court found Hategekimana guilty of three counts of genocide stemming from his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, specifically in the massacre of civilian Tutsis in the Rwandan town of Butare.