The only European convicted over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was flown home to Italy to serve out the rest of his 12-year sentence, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said today. Georges Omar Ruggiu, a former presenter with Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, was sentenced in 2000 after pleading guilty to two counts of incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.
The station became notorious for broadcasting messages calling for Rwanda’s Tutsis to be killed. Ruggiu, 50, was a presenter at the station. Born in Belgium and also holding Italian nationality, he had been held by the tribunal since July 1997.
The ICTR, which is based in Arusha in Tanzania, was set up to judge those responsible for the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed. To date it has convicted 30 defendants, acquitting five.
(Source: AFP)
