Hate radio journalist gets 12 years

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday sentenced the Italo-Belgian hate radio journalist Georges Ruggiu to two concurrent sentences of 12 years each, the InterNews agency reported. The sentences were handed down for the two charges of direct and public incitement to genocide and persecution to which Ruggiu pleaded guilty on 15 May. The judges noted that Ruggiu appeared to have a genuine awareness of his guilt and responsibility. They also noted that he had shown a deep and abiding sense of remorse and regret, and considered that some level of clemency ought to be shown to those who confess their guilt to encourage others complicit in the 1994 genocide to come forward, InterNews reported. The judges accepted that Ruggiu had been easily influenced by Hutu extremists, and had been given a biased and subjective account of the political and social situation in Rwanda, but said mitigating factors did not in any way diminish the crime or the conviction of guilt that the court had imposed, they added. In particular, they commented on the fact that after releasing the broadcasts on Radio Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) were contributing to widespread massacres against Tutsis, Ruggiu had made "a deliberate choice to continue working" for the station, the report said. The concurrent sentences imply that Ruggiu will serve a single 12-year term, less the time he has already spent in custody since his arrest in July 1997, InterNews reported.