Swedish Court Sentences Man for Role in Rwanda Genocide (May 16, 2016) [1]
On May 16, 2016, the Stockholm District Court sentenced a sixty-one-year-old man to life in prison for his participation in the Rwandan genocide. According to this news report [3], Claver Berinkindi, a nationalized Swedish citizen, was found to have participated in five massacres in 1994, both rallying people to join in the killings and taking an active part in them himself. The case marks the first time a Swedish court has awarded damages to victims of genocide, imposing payments to fifteen people who had lost relatives due to Berinkindi’s actions. According to this news report [4], Sweden instituted the proceedings against Berinkindi after a Rwandan court had convicted him of genocide-related crimes in absentia last year, thereby continuing a global effort to try perpetrators of crimes against humanity regardless of where those crimes occurred.