First person to finish Rwanda genocide sentence freed

NAIROBI, Dec 6 (Reuters) The UN tribunal prosecuting Rwanda's 1994 genocide freed the first of its convicted prisoners today, an 81-year-old pastor who served 10 years for luring Tutsis into a church for slaughter.

Former Seventh Day Adventist pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana was convicted for aiding and abetting genocide and held in a detention centre in Arusha, Tanzania.

The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) gave him a 10-year sentence in 2003 for herding large groups of Tutsis into a church and hospital compound in western Rwanda and then calling Hutu extremists to kill them.

The tribunal took into account the time Ntakirutimana had spent in prison while awaiting trial, after he was arrested in Texas 10 years ago.

''Elizaphan Ntakirutimana ... was today released from prison at the end of his sentence,'' ICTR said in a statement. ''The accused becomes the first ICTR convict to be released after serving his sentence.'' The tribunal is responsible for prosecuting leaders involved in the 100 days of bloodletting in which Hutu extremists carried out a planned genocide that killed 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

It has convicted 26 people and acquitted five since its first trial in 1997.

It has indicted more than 80 people for genocide-related crimes since being set up in 1994. It has up to the end of 2008 to complete its trials -- a deadline it is racing to beat -- and until 2010 to hear appeals.

REUTERS LL PM1947