The Stockholm District Court in Sweden has sentenced Claver Berinkindi to life in prison for taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide where more than 800,000 people were killed. Sweden charged Berinkindi after he was convicted of genocide-related crimes by the Rwandan Gacaca community
court in abstentia. The Swedish court determined he was guilty of genocide and gross crime under international law consisting of murder, kidnapping and attempted murder. He was found to have participated in five massacres between April 18 and May 31, 1994. In the hills of Nyamure, in Rwanda’s Southern Province, he rallied people to participate in the killing of thousands of civilians, the court found. He was also involved in the deaths of hundreds of people who had sought refuge in a municipal building in the central Rwandan town of Muyira and in an adjacent adult education center. Trapped in the compound, hundreds of people were massacred. He has three weeks to appeal the decision.
Moreover, the court awarded 15 people damages who witnessed the loss of a relative at the hands of Berinkindi, ranging from $3900-$13,000. (Sh392,952 and 1.3 million). Berinkindi obtained Swedish citizenship in 2012.
