[JURIST] A Dutch court on Friday convicted Yvonne Basebya [AllAfrica backgrounder], a Dutch citizen born in Rwanda, of inciting genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The District Court of The Hague [official website] sentenced Basebya to six years and eight months in prison for her role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The court found that Basebya incited genocide by leading meetings of a radical ethnic Hutu party and sang a song that called for the murder of all ethnic Tutsis [AP report]. Around 800,000 Rwandans, primarily Tutsis, were killed during the 1994 genocide. The court, however, cleared Basebya of more serious charges [BBC report], such as perpetrating genocide and murder. Basebya is the first Dutch citizen to be convicted of crimes relating to the Rwandan genocide. Her lawyer plans to appeal the ruling.

Two weeks ago a court in Norway sentenced a Rwandan man to 21 years for being an accomplice to the 1994 Rwandan genocide [JURIST report]. In January a Rwandan genocide suspect was arrested [JURIST report] in France. Earlier in January the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] convicted [JURIST report] former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware [case materials], sentencing him to 35 years in prison and concluding the tribunal’s final trial. Ngirabatware was found guilty on charges of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and rape as a crime against humanity. In December the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution [JURIST report] to extend the term of office of five judges of the ICTR.