The Norwegian Borgarting Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a maximum sentence for Sadi Bugingo, who was in February 2013 sentenced to 21 years in jail for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that claimed over a million lives.

Bugingo had been found guilty by a lower court in the massacre of Tutsi in the former Kibungo prefecture, now Ngoma District, Eastern Province.

The court found that he had played a part in killings at the Economat Général of Kibungo Diocese and at Kibungo Baptist Church. He is also linked to murders of Tutsi in various areas, including Birenga, Zaza, and Nyakarambi.

Information from Olso indicates that the Norwegian jury believed he had transported the assassins and showed them where Tutsis were hiding.

Bugingo always maintained his innocence.

 During the initial hearings, about 100 people testified against Bugingo accusing him of being responsible for the brutal murder of over 2,000 Tutsi. Some of those testimonies were heard via video link from Kigali

The trial opened in September 2013.

He lost the case and was handed a 21-year jail sentence – a maximum jail term in the Norwegian legal system which the appeals court upheld.

Bugingo had lived in Bergen, western Norway, since 2001. He was arrested in 2012 and has been investigated by Norwegian authorities since 2008.