Rwanda priest sentence cut to 23 years

Arusha, Tanzania, 22 oct-(ANA)-The UN tribunal trying the masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide has cut on appeal the sentence of a Catholic priest to 23 years from 25.

Emmanuel Rukundo, a former army chaplain, was sentenced last year for genocide, sexual assault and kidnapping during the killings in Rwanda.

"The Appeals Chamber, sitting in open session, Judge Pocar dissenting, reduces the sentence of 25 years of imprisonment imposed on Rukundo by the Trial Chamber to 23 years of imprisonment," presiding judge Fausto Pocar said.

Rukundo, 51, will remain in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha until he is allocated a country in which to service his sentence, Pocar said.

The appeals chamber upheld the previous convictions for genocide, extermination and homicide but said the judges had erred slightly in the way they qualified some of the charges. (ANA)

FA/ANA/22 October 2010--------