JUSTICE

Man Gets Life Sentence in Rwandan Genocide

After prosecutors win in appeal.

A Rwandan citizen has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Joseph Mpambara, a Hutu who had been living in the Netherlands, was originally sentenced to 20 years in jail but was acquitted on war-crimes charges. But prosecutors appealed the decision and won, securing a war-crimes conviction and a life sentence. Mpambara, 43, was found guilty of torturing two Tutsi mothers and their children to death, and to having attacked a Protestant church where Tutsis had sought sanctuary. "The appeals court is of the opinion that you have made yourself guilty of war crimes," a judge told him.