Rwandas high court on Tuesday sentenced a leading opposition politician to eight years in prison,in a case widely viewed as a test of the nations democratic limits and the independence of the judiciary. The opposition leader,Victoire Ingabire,had faced six charges and was found guilty of two: conspiring to harm the country through war and terror,and minimising the 1994 genocide that tore apart the nation. She was accused of transferring money to Hutu rebels and of questioning why no Hutu victims were mentioned alongside Tutsi victims in a genocide memorial. More than 800,000 people were killed in the country when a Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing rampage in April 1994,indiscriminately killing Tutsis and the moderate Hutus. Ingabire,a Hutu,returned to Rwanda in January 2010 from exile in the Netherlands to take part in presidential elections,but was barred after being accused of crimes linked to genocide denial. Iain Edwards,Ingabires British lawyer,argued that the evidence against her was fabricated and some of the charges were against the Constitution of the country.
