OSLO, Norway — A Norwegian court on Thursday convicted a Rwandan man
living in Norway for participating in the 1994 genocide in his home
country and sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
Sadi Bugingo
The Oslo District Court found Sadi Bugingo, 47, guilty of complicity in
the premeditated killings of at least 2,000 people belonging mainly to
the Tutsi ethnic group. It singled out three prolonged attacks in his
home town of Kibungo, eastern Rwanda, during April 1994.
Bugingo has denied all charges and says he will appeal.
The court said that the former businessman participated in the massacres
and organized them by transporting armed killers and victims to the
sites of the killings.
“Several witnesses have described how the accused was present in the
massacres,” Judge Jonas Petter Madsoe said. “In this court’s view, there
are also several other circumstances in the case which together support
the conclusion that the defendant supported and participated in the
genocide which took place in Kibungo.”
During his defense, Bugingo claimed that he was not in the region at the
time of the massacres and said he had not known about them. Madsoe
noted that he had been a wealthy local businessman and found his claims
“not credible.”
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