Rwandan former police officer sentenced to life in prison

A court in France has sentenced former Rwandan police officer, Philippe Hategekimana, to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Philippe Hategekimana’s crimes took place during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when Hutu militias killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The prosecutors said Mr Hategekimana had played a central part in carrying out the killings, not only murdering people but inciting others to do so.

Hategekimana, who had worked as a senior gendarme in Nyanza, a town in the south of the country, fled to France after the genocide, the BBC reported.

He acquired refugee status and French nationality under the name of Philippe Manier.

Mr Hategekimana 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, AFP reports. He was arrested in Yaoundé and extradited to France the following year to face trail.