A Swedish court on Monday sentenced death squad leader Claver Berinkindi to life in prison for genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the second such case brought by the Nordic country over crimes during the conflict, Reuters reports.
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The Stockholm District Court said Berinkindi, a Swedish citizen originally from Rwanda, was convicted of genocide and gross crime under international law consisting of murder, attempted murder and kidnapping in Rwanda.
The Stockholm District Court found that Berinkindi had participated in five massacres between April 18 and May 31, 1994. He gathered people to participate in the killing of thousands of civilians.
“There were thousands of victims on the mountain, and hundreds of victims in the communal building,” Tora Holst, who leads a prosecutorial unit created in 2008 to focus on war crimes, told the New York Times. “In the mountain, he collected and assembled people to go there, and he participated in the attack.”
The court, according to the New York newspaper, found that Berinkindi had directly taken part in killings, using machetes, spears and clubs, Holst said. “It’s about the most serious crime known to mankind.”
Under Swedish law, courts can try Swedish citizens and other nationals for crimes committed abroad.
The court said 15 crime victims had been awarded damages ranging from USD$3,781 to USD$12,602. It was the first time a Swedish court had awarded damages to victims of genocide.
An estimated 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi ethnic minority but also moderates of the ethnic group Hutu, were killed by Hutus over three months in 1994 after years of civil war. The massacres raised questions about the ability or will of international organizations or states to intervene to halt mass killings of civilians.
The massacres were perpetrated with guns, machetes and even garden tools. It has been called the fastest and most efficient killing spree of the 20th century.