appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Agence France-Presse

A Dutch court on Friday handed a life sentence to a 66-year-old man for his role in the massacre of 3,000 Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
During the violence that took place in April 1994, terrified victims sought refuge in a football stadium in Mbazi, southern Rwanda, only to be systematically slaughtered.
The judge said that the man, identified as Eugene N., prevented Tutsis from escaping the stadium and threw a grenade into the crowd.
The court said he was also involved in attacks preceding the stadium massacre, when houses were looted and set on fire.
“Only a lifelong prison sentence does justice to the immense suffering that has been inflicted on the victims and the bereaved families,” the court said.
His actions were committed with “genocidal intent”, said the presiding judge handing down the verdict.
He was convicted of war crimes and the crime of genocide.
At hearings in June before the District Court of The Hague, prosecutors had urged a life sentence, saying that N. was “personally involved” in the killings.
“If the horrific crimes of the suspect – in which not one but an estimated 3,000 innocent people were literally slaughtered, in which the suspect personally threw a grenade into a stadium … do not deserve a life sentence, then what does?” one prosecutor asked the court.

The 1994 Rwandan genocide claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 people over the course of three months. According to UN figures, most of the victims were part of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.
The suspect had denied the charges, saying he himself was a victim who had lost dozens of his own relatives in what he described as “those horrific events”.
N.’s lawyers had urged an acquittal on all counts, saying their client in fact did “everything to prevent the genocide”.
“The case has torn his scars open again. He is a broken man,” said one of the defence lawyers during the trial.
According to local news agency ANP, the defence said they will “almost certainly appeal the charges”.
At the time of the massacres, N. held a position of responsibility in the community, said the court, overseeing around 1,000 people in Mbazi.
“The suspect was a man who was held in high regard and he must have been aware of his role and the influence he had as a local authority,” said the court.
“Instead of staying on the sidelines, the defendant committed multiple severe crimes,” added the court.
The court said he watched from a road as his men stormed into houses of Tutsis, setting them ablaze.
He was, however, acquitted of the charge of incitement to genocide.

N. fled to the Netherlands in 1998. Rwandan authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2014.
However, according to Dutch law, he cannot be extradited as he has obtained nationality in the Netherlands.
Dutch prosecutors opened their own investigation in 2020 and have since interviewed dozens of witnesses in Rwanda. N. was arrested in 2024.
European courts have tried and convicted several dozen people involved in the Rwanda genocide under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows them to hear the most serious crimes even if committed abroad.


Dutch court jails man for life over role in Rwanda genocide

Bosnian Serb commander and war criminal Ratko Mladic dies in prison

So long, West? Why South Asian students are rethinking where to go for university

Beyond Amsterdam: Amersfoort’s 15th century charm lies in its canals, cafes and tourist-free calm

The Netherlands

Many travellers to the African nation of Rwanda include a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. Photo: Karin Schermbrucker

Two women grieve next to the monument of the Flame of Remembrance at the Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda in 2024. Photo: AFP

Rwandan President Paul Kagame lights a memorial flame at the Kigali Genocide Memorial to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in 2024. Photo: AP

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic imitates taking pictures as he sits in the courtroom in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2021. Photo: AP

Investigators clearing away soil and debris from a tangle of dozens of bodies of Srebrenica massacre victims buried in a mass grave near the village of Pilica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1996. Photo: AP

From left to right: Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Mladic. Photo: AP

Mladic in Sarajevo in 1993. Photo: Reuters

Shackled Tate brothers ask to be released from jail during extradition fight

Supporters of social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate gather outside the courthouse in Miami, Florida, on Thursday. Photo: EPA

Andrew and Tristan Tate sit as their lawyer Howard Srebnick urges US Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis to release the brothers on bail in Miami, Florida, on Thursday. Courtroom sketch: Omnimedia Arts Inc/Lothar Speer via Reuters

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan talk to the media outside their home in Bucharest, Romania, in March 2025. Photo: TNS

Lawyer Joseph Daniel McBride, representing social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, speaks to journalists outside the courthouse in Miami, Florida, on Thursday. Photo: EPA

Turkey issues ‘genocide’ warrant for Israel’s Netanyahu over Gaza flotilla

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Berlin in March 2023. Photo: dpa

Dutch court jails man for life over role in Rwanda genocide

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}He had prevented Tutsis from escaping and threw a grenade into the crowd

He had prevented Tutsis from escaping and threw a grenade into the crowd