afrol News, 6 February - A traditional "gacaca" court on Tuesday sentenced a doctor to 15 years in prison for his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide, right groups confirmed.

Theoneste Niyitegeka, who had wanted to join the country's presidential race in 2003, was first acquitted in October.

Doctor Niyitegeka was arrested after judgment had been handed down.

He was accused of complicity with the Hutu militia to kill Tutsi patents at Kabgayi hospital in Central Rwanda in 1994. The genocide doctor was accused of driving away sick Tutsis from the hospital to allow Hutu militias to kill them at the entrance.

The 100-day long genocide witnessed the killings of at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Established at village levels, gacaca courts have been mandated to preside over genocide cases.

In November last year, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania upheld the 25-year prison sentence of a Rwandan military officer.

Aloys Simba, a former colonel was found guilty of committing genocide, extermination and crimes against humanity in 2005.

His lawyers filed an appeal challenging the judgment, arguing that it contained "errors of fact and procedure."

But judges dismissed all aspects of the defence team's appeal.

The convicted colonel had been close to, Juvenal Habyarimana, the former President of Rwanda since he ascended to power in 1973.

Hybarimana died in a plane crash on 6 April 1994. His death sparked off the flames of the 1994 genocide.

Simba's conviction had to do with his role in arming and inciting his men to carry out mass slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the southern Gikongor and Butare provinces.

His numerous efforts to escape the jurisdiction of the Arusha tribunal had failed. He was arrested in Senegal in 2001.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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