A Dutch court has sentenced a Dutch-Rwandan man, Eugene N, to life imprisonment for war crimes and genocide committed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. The ruling matters because it holds a former local official accountable decades later for atrocities against Tutsis, despite his denial of the allegations.

The Hague court found that the 66-year-old helped trap Tutsis at a football stadium in southern Rwanda, where people were attacked with stones, gunfire and grenades before survivors were killed. It said he had authority over about 1,000 people in Mbazi and acted with genocidal intent; around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed over roughly 100 days in 1994. Dutch authorities investigated after Rwanda sought his extradition, interviewed more than 30 witnesses, and arrested him in 2024; he was acquitted of incitement to genocide and his lawyers expect to appeal.