Rwandan Gets Life Sentence in 1994 Massacre

A Dutch appeals court has convicted a Rwandan Hutu man of war crimes and sentenced him to life in prison for taking part in a massacre of Tutsis sheltering in a church during his country's 1994 genocide. The Hague Court of Appeal reversed Joseph Mpambara's acquittal by a lower court, saying his offenses were "among the most serious crimes judged by a Dutch criminal court since the Second World War."

Though it acquitted him on the massacre, the lower court had sentenced Mpambara to 20 years after convicting him of torture for his involvement in the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least four of their children who were hauled out of an ambulance. The appellate panel's written ruling said the life sentence "should act as an international deterrent." The judges said there was sufficient evidence to convict him on charges that he took part in the massacre in which victims "were almost literally butchered" by a mob of machete-wielding Hutus. (More Rwanda stories.)