By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former Rwandan police officer, Philippe Hategekimana has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity by a court in France and has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Hategekimana’s crimes took place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Hutu militias killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
During his trial, the prosecutors described him as having played a central part in carrying out the killings. It included inciting others to kill.
Hategekimana, who had worked as a senior police officer in Nyanza, a town in the south of the country, fled to France after the genocide.
He acquired refugee status and French nationality under the name of Philippe Manier.
He had worked as a university security guard in France and fled to Cameroon in 2017 when he heard a complaint had been filed against him, an AFP report says.
He was arrested in Yaoundé and extradited to France the following year to face trail.
It was the fifth such trial in France of an alleged participant in the genocide.
The killings of around 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus took place over 100 days in 1994.
