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Former mayor pleads not guilty to crimes against humanity

    NAIROBI

    Former mayor of Bicumbi in Greater Kigali prefecture, Laurent Semanza, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity before the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Semanza was pleading on the basis of an indictment newly amended to include seven new charges, including that of rape, to genocide charges originally brought in October 1997, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. The defendant is now charged with 14 counts of genocide, incitement to genocide, crimes against humanity (including rape and torture) and war crimes.

    Priest faces genocide investigation in France Meanwhile, a French appeals court on Wednesday appointed magistrate Herve Stephan to investigate a Rwandan Catholic priest, Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, on allegations that he took part in the 1994 genocide - overturning a 1996 judgement that a French magistrate could not investigate him for crimes that occurred in Rwanda, news agencies reported. Munyeshyaka is alleged to have selected individuals to be killed, left people to starve to death and demanded sex in return for sparing people from the slaughter.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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