The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) for Rwanda has sentenced the central African country's information minister during the 1994 genocide to life imprisonment.
Eliezer Niyitegeka (50) faced eight charges of genocide and crimes against humanity related to the massacre of Tutsi civilians in western Rwanda's Bisesero hills between April and June 1994.
He was not found guilty of rape, one of the charges brought against him.
Up to a million minority Tutsis and Hutus opposed to the organised ethnic slaughter that ravaged Rwanda for 100 days were killed in the genocide.
Niyitegeka's sentence was one of the most rapid handed down by the ICTR, which has come under severe criticism for its slowness.
Since it was created by the United Nations in November 1994 to try the leaders of the Rwandan genocide, the ICTR has convicted 11 people and acquitted one.
AFP