The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a former youth organizer in Rwanda to seven years of imprisonment for his role in the 1994 genocide.

The sentence was meted out to Joseph Nzabirinda on Friday in Arusha of northern Tanzania where the United Nations court seats, according to reports reaching here on Saturday.

The convict pleaded guilty of murder to the court in December last year.

Nzabirinda was accused of repeatedly attending meetings which were clearly planned to commit killings in the Sahera sector of the Butare Province in southern Rwanda.

ICTR Spokesman Tim Gallimore told local media that the prosecutor was satisfied with the verdict and encourages other accused to come forward with guilty pleas.

The UN court, set up in 1997 with a United Nations Security Council resolution, has so far rendered 28 verdicts including five acquittals.

Trials are underway for 27 other accused.

Source: Xinhua