Convicted for genocide and incitement to commit genocide in Butare, southern Rwanda, his native region, the senator was tried by the semi-traditional Gacaca Court of Kigali.
According to the Rwandan newspaper The New Times, the senator was spotted over the week-end at the Office of the High Commission for Refugees in Kampala, Uganda, in the company of certain members of his family.
Last year, at the end of a trial for hoarding and looting of goods during the genocide, Safari was sentenced to a fine of 7 million Rwandan francs (nearly 13, 000 American dollars).
A brilliant orator, Safari had fought for the dissolution of his former party, the Republican Democratic Movement (MDR), which he accused of having taught and spread the genocide ideology. After the dissolution of the MDR, he, along with others, founded the Party for Solidarity and Progress (PSP), which belongs to the coalition which is formed around the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which is in power.
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© Hirondelle News Agency