Rwandan genocide suspect jailed for life in the Netherlands

The skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church are laid out as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Ntarama, Rwanda on April 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

AMSTERDAM - A Dutch court on Friday sentenced a 67-year-old man to life in prison for war crimes and genocide committed in Rwanda in 1994, where it said he had been involved in the killing of around 3,000 Tutsis who had sought refuge from Hutu attacks at a stadium.

The defendant, identified only as Eugene N., had fled to the Netherlands in 1998 and later obtained the Dutch nationality. Dutch prosecutors opened an investigation into him in 2020, which led to his arrest in the Netherlands in 2024.

The court said the man had been at the stadium in Byiza in April 1994 and gave the Hutus present “instructions to let no Tutsi escape the stadium.”

“In the afternoon, shots were fired at the Tutsis, they were pelted with stones, and hand grenades were thrown onto the field. One grenade was thrown by the defendant. Survivors of the afternoon attack were killed with clubs and machetes,” it said.

The defendant’s lawyers have denied that he had a role in the massacres. Instead, they said he tried to avoid the genocide.

More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days in the 1994 genocide, orchestrated by the Hutu ruling majority and meticulously executed by local officials and ordinary citizens.

The court said the man also took part in raids on two communities predominantly inhabited by the Tutsi population in Mbazi, the municipality where he was “a person of authority.”

During these attacks houses were looted and set afire, after which people fled to the stadium, where they thought they would be safe - but instead were ultimately killed.

The Netherlands has tried and convicted other Rwandan genocide suspects before under universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to try certain grave international crimes regardless of where they were committed, and has in the past also extradited genocide suspects to Rwanda.

Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alison Williams