A Rwandan court handed jail sentences ranging from 10 years to life to 11 people on Thursday for conspiring with a rebel movement to topple the government of President Paul Kagame.
The group tried in the Musanze area in north Rwanda were accused of working with the FDLR rebel group that is based in east Democratic Republic of Congo and which the government says includes ethnic Hutus who were behind the 1994 genocide that killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Six people got life sentences, including Nsengiyumva Jotham, a former FDLR fighter, and two women. Five people were jailed for 10 years by the court, that was set up in a football stadium, while three were acquitted.
The group had faced charges that included plotting to topple the government on behalf of the FDLR, illegal possession of firearms, murder and carrying out attacks, including assaults with grenades that killed two people and injured others.
"I'm speechless. My daughter is innocent," said the mother of Bellancile after the verdict, read out in the pouring rain.
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