afrol News, 29 February - The only foreigner convicted of Rwanda's 1994 genocide crimes, Georges Ruggiu, was on Thursday transferred to Italian to serve his remaining sentence. He was handed over to a delegation of Italian Interior Ministry.

Ruggiu - a former school teacher of Rwanda with an Italian father and a former broadcaster of Rwanda's Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines - was in June 2000 jailed by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania for 12 years in prison after he had been guilty of fanning the 100-day genocide.

According to ICTR officials, the transfer was in line with an agreement between the United Nations and the Italian government. In addition, an Italian court legalised the enforcement of the UN-backed court's sentences in Italy.

Ruggiu had admitted public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity by
broadcasting hate speeches during the 100-day genocide which saw the mass slaughter of the minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus by a Hutu militia. The genocide resulted to the killing of 800,000 people.

His attempts to escape justice were aborted after he was arrested and handed over to the Rwanda tribunal in July 1997.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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