[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] convicted [judgment summary, PDF] former Rwandan mayor Gregoire Ndahimana [HJP profile] of genocide and crimes against humanity on Thursday and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Ndahimana was charged in connection with the 1994 Rwandan Genocide [BBC backgrounder]. He was convicted [Reuters report] of the killings at Nyange parish between April 6 and April 20, 1994, by virtue of his “command responsibility.” An indictment [text, PDF] against Ndahimana was issued in April 2001 for his participation in the bulldozing of the Nyange parish killing the 2,000 Tutsis hiding inside. Ndahimana was found hiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009 and was sent to the ICTR for trial [case materials], which began [JURIST report] in September 2010.

The ICTR continues to try suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people were killed. In September, the court acquitted [JURIST report] two former Rwandan ministers, Casimir Bizimungu and Jerome Bicamumpaka, of genocide charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence. In June, the court 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. 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.