Rwandan Is Convicted by U.N. Tribunal
A U.N. tribunal found a former Rwandan tea factory manager guilty Thursday of three genocide-related charges, including rape, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Alfred Musema is the first private citizen tried and convicted by the tribunal, which is prosecuting chief architects and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide of more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
The three-judge panel found Musema, 50, guilty on one count each of rape, genocide and crimes against humanity. It acquitted him on six other genocide-related counts.
Musema’s attorney, Steven Kay of Britain, said he would appeal.
The court said Musema, former director of the state-owned tea factory in Gisovu, in western Rwanda’s Kibuye province, was guilty of raping a Tutsi woman and encouraging four factory employees to rape her as well.
Musema also was convicted of crimes against humanity for allowing workers at the factory to participate in massacres and use the factory grounds for the slaughter.
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