A United Nations war crimes tribunal sentenced on Thursday a former chief of Rwanda's tea processing and marketing agency to eight years in prison for his role in the country's 1994 genocide.

Michael Bagaragaza, 64, had pleaded guilty to "complicity to commit genocide" in September. He was a member of the party that was in power during the 100-day slaughter of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political moderates from the Hutu majority.

Judge Vagn Joensen said a three-judge panel of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ruled that Bagaragaza would get credit for the four years he spent in detention since his arrest in August 2005 and so will only serve for four years.

Delivering his 20-minute judgment before a packed gallery, Joensen said the judges took into account Bagaragaza's guilty plea, claims of remorse and his voluntary surrender when deciding the sentence.

Bagaragaza, a father of eight children, had also agreed to assist the tribunal in the future.

"Bagaragaza has thereby to a remarkable degree contributed to the process of truth-finding with respect to the Rwandan tragedy and to national reconciliation," the judges said.

"It is likely that when agreeing to provide assistance to the genocidaires, he was motivated by concern for the safety of his family and himself," Joensen said.

Bagaragaza's lawyer, Gerardus Knoops, said the sentence was "fair." Continued...