Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza
Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza (1950–25 April 2010) was a Rwandan lawyer and civil servant tied to the Hutu Power movement. He served as policy director in Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the 1994 genocide and has been described by some as one of the genocide’s masterminds. He helped found the extremist Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), which took a harder line against the Tutsi population than the ruling party. He was also the chairman of the executive committee of the RTLM radio station, which broadcast messages urging violence against the Tutsis.
In 1996 he was detained in Yaoundé, Cameroon. On 23 October 2000, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) charged him with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the Geneva Conventions. He stood trial with Ferdinand Nahimana (co-founder of RTLM) and Hassan Ngeze (editor of Kangura).
Barayagwiza initially refused to participate in the trial, saying the judges were biased. On 3 December 2003 he was found guilty of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to genocide, extermination and persecution as crimes against humanity. He was found not guilty of complicity in genocide, murder, and Geneva Conventions violations, and he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. His appeal reduced the sentence to 32 years on 22 June 2009.
Barayagwiza died on 25 April 2010 in Porto Novo, Benin, from an advanced case of hepatitis C. His family said he did not receive adequate medical treatment.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:13 (CET).