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MONTREAL, May 22 (UPI) -- A 42-year-old Rwandan man is guilty of committing war crimes during the 1994 genocide in his homeland, a court in the Canadian province of Quebec said Friday. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said Desire Munyaneza was convicted of war crime charges filed under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
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In addition to the war crime counts conviction, Quebec Superior Court Justice Andre Denis found Munyaneza guilty on counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, the Montreal Gazette reported.
The newspaper said each of the seven counts Munyaneza was convicted of carries a life prison sentence.
The son of a Rwandan beer distributor, Munyaneza had been accused of assisting in the genocide that took place in his home country between April 1 and July 31, 1994.
The three-month genocide conducted by the country's Hutu ethnic group resulted in the slaughter of an estimated 1 million members of Rwanda's Tutsi ethnic group as well as moderate Hutus.
The Gazette said Munyazena came to Canada in 1997 as part of a refugee attempt, but his request for sanctuary was repeatedly denied and he was held for trial.
