[Published: Saturday September 18 2010]
Rwanda: Kagame critic Mushayidi jailed for life
Kigali, 18 Sept-(ANA)-A prominent Rwandan opposition figure has been jailed for life after a court found him guilty of plotting to overthrow President Paul Kagame's government.
Deogratias Mushayidi was a former member of the ruling party before becoming one of its strongest critics.
He was living in exile but in March he was arrested in neighbouring Burundi and extradited.
Mushayidi has said the charges are politically motivated.
President Kagame was overwhelmingly re-elected in August but several oppositions parties were barred from taking part.
His government has denied claims it was behind a series of attacks on his critics ahead of the election.
Meanwhile, Rwanda's president has again denied reports in a leaked UN report that his forces killed tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus in Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s.
Mr Kagame's Tutsi-led forces came to power in 1994, ending the genocide, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. (ANA)
FA/ANA/18 September 2010--------
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