Norwegian Court Upholds Rwandan Genocide Sentence

A Norwegian appeals court upheld Friday the maximum sentence for a Rwandan found complicit in the death of 2,000 people during his country's genocide in 1994.

Sadi Bugingo -- whose guilt was already upheld by a lower court in mid-December -- was sentenced to 21 years in prison for "complicity in premeditated murder".

A Norwegian resident since 2002, Bugingo was charged with involvement in two killings in the eastern Rwandan town of Kibungo in April 1994 as well as having helped remove patients from a hospital, without taking direct part in any murders.

The Norwegian jury believed he had transported the assassins and showed them where Tutsis -- the  main target during of the atrocity -- were hiding. Bugingo, for his part, always maintained his innocence.

The Rwandan genocide -- which began after the assassination on April 6, 1994 of President Juvenal Habyarimana -- resulted in 800,000 deaths over three months, according to the U.N.