UN war crimes court to rule on Rwanda genocide

The UN-backed tribunal for Rwanda will today give its verdict on the alleged mastermind of the 1994 genocide there, in which some 800,000 people were killed.
Theoneste Bagosora and three former top military officers are accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and conspiracy to commit genocide.
The indictment accuses them of having conspired to "work out a plan with the intent to exterminate the civilian Tutsi population and eliminate members of the opposition, so that they could remain in power."
If convicted, it would mark the first time the tribunal has sentenced any suspect for having actually conspired to carry out the genocide.
ICTR chief prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow has charged that the four were involved in a conspiracy that began in late 1990 when hundreds of Tutsis were arrested after an attack by a Tutsi-dominated rebel group.
"All the four were involved in the arrest," Jallow said during his submission in May last year.