A Rwandan community court has charged a Belgian missionary with inciting and planning the 1994 genocide that left more than half a million people dead.
Guy Theunis, 60, is the first foreigner to appear before the community courts
Guy Theunis (60) is the first foreigner to appear before the community courts set up to investigate and try more than 760,000 people suspected in the 100-day slaughter.
The massacres were orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government then in power and targeted mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority. Moderate Hutus were also among the victims.
Mr Theunis insisted the allegations were based on false information, but the nine-judge panel Sunday classified him among the alleged leaders.
As a result his case was automatically transferred to a conventional court, where he will face a possible death penalty if convicted.
Formerly the editor of Rwanda's periodical Le Dialogue, Mr Theunis allegedly incited the genocide by reproducing articles from Kangura, a newspaper that promoted the killing of Tutsis.
Kangura's editor, Hassan Ngeze, has been convicted by a UN tribunal and sentenced to life in prison.
"I am astonished to hear all these allegations levelled against me," Mr Theunis told the court yesterday, speaking in Rwanda's national language, Kinyarwanda.
He said while he sometimes wrote articles to press for human rights, he "never republished articles from Kangura, but just translated as part of a press review."
Mr Theunis, who had worked in Rwanda since 1970, settled in South Africa after the genocide. He was arrested September 6th while travelling through Rwanda's capital, Kigali.
An international rights activist was the only person to defend the missionary during Sunday's proceedings.