[JURIST] A court in Stuttgart, Germany, on Monday sentenced two Rwandan rebel leaders to multi-year jail sentences for their roles in a series of massacres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2008 and 2009. Leading the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], Ignace Murwanashyaka and his deputy Straton Musoni were accused [DW report] of a variety of war crimes committed by rebel militias they controlled from Germany for 22 months, beginning in January 2008. At the conclusion of the four-year trial, Murwanashyaka and Musoni were given 13 and eight-year sentences, respectively.

The case was the first to be tried under the German Code of Crimes Against International Law (CCAIL), which adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court [texts] and allows German courts to prosecute war crimes irrespective of where they are committed. Murwanashyaka and Musoni were arrested in 2009 following a year-long investigation, and trial began [JURIST reports] in 2011. German officials previously arrested [JURIST report] Murwanashyaka in 2006 for alleged violations of immigration laws. In 2005 Murwanashyaka claimed [JURIST report] that the FDLR would end its war against the government and transform its fight into a political struggle.