A Rwandan has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Belgium for his involvement in the 1994 genocide.

   A Rwandan former militia leader, Seraphin Twarhirwa, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Belgian court for his involvement in the 1994 genocide.

 Twarhirwa, now 66 years old, was found guilty of committing numerous murders and rapes during the genocide, which targeted Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Kigali. Another defendant, Pierre Basabose, who had close ties to former President Juvenal Habyarimana, was also found guilty of "genocide" and "war crimes" for funding the militia.

   However, due to his incurable senile dementia, the 76-year-old Basabose was not sentenced to jail. Both men were arrested in Belgium in 2020, where they were living in exile. This trial marks the sixth held in Belgium regarding the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Belgium, having ruled Rwanda during the colonial period, has a significant Rwandan diaspora. 

  The genocide resulted in the deaths of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in just 100 days. In a separate case, a French court recently sentenced former doctor Sosthene Munyemana to 24 years in prison for his involvement in the genocide. Twarhirwa and Basabose denied the accusations during their two-month trial, and their lawyers have stated their intention to appeal the verdict.

  The guilty verdict has been praised by Michele Hirsch, a lawyer representing the victims' families, who emphasized that the court recognized the mass rapes committed by Twarhirwa as part of the genocide. However, defense lawyer Vincent Lurquin raised concerns about the judicial cooperation between Belgium and the Rwandan government led by President Paul Kagame, referring to it as an "authoritarian regime."

  Lurquin pointed out that Belgian investigators relied on witness testimonies from a previous procedure initiated by Rwandan authorities in the early 2000s.