Leon Mugesera, faces a life in prison over his role in the Rwandan genocide.
A former politician who described Tutsis as “cockroaches” and called for their extermination has been jailed for life in Rwanda over the 1994 genocide.
Leon Mugesera, an academic, was extradited back to his home country from Canada four years ago. Mugesera, 64, served as the deputy chairman and special advisor to the former ruling party, National Revolutionary Movement for Development.
The court ruled that he was guilty of multiple counts, including incitement to commit genocide, inciting ethnic hatred and persecution as a crime against humanity.
He was, however, cleared of charges related to preparing and planning the genocide and conspiracy in genocide after the court found there was not enough evidence to convict.
He made his incendiary speech against the Tutsi minority in 1992. Some 800,000 people died in the genocide.
Mugesera later worked as a lecturer in Quebec province and lost a 12-year legal battle to avoid extradition.
In 1992, then an official in Rwanda’s ruling Hutu party, Mugesera told more than 1,000 party members that they should kill Tutsis and dump their bodies in the river.
Mugesera later maintained his innocence, saying the speech had been taken out of context.
The genocide ended when rebels, led by current Tutsi President Paul Kagame, seized power in July 1994.
Militias from the majority Hutu ethnic group were blamed for the mass slaughter.
