Ferdinand Nahimana

Rwandan genocide Under the terms of the Arusha peace agreements, he was nominated as Higher Education Minister for Culture and Scientific Research. Nahimana was a member of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, Habyarimana's political party.

The "hate media trials" received attention since it was the first time since the Nuremberg trials that hate speech had been prosecuted as a war crime. On 3 December 2003, Ferdinand Nahimana was sentenced to life imprisonment, guilty of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement, directly and publicly, to commit genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. Hassan Ngeze also got a life sentence, and Jean Bosco Barayagwiza was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Despite the sentences' possible impact on freedom of the press, Reporters Without Borders welcomed the outcome of the trial.

Despite the assertion of his French lawyer Jean-Marie Biju-Duval that Nahimana, founder of the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), no longer exerted any role on the radio starting 6 April 1994, he was convicted for his responsibility as a senior ranking official in RTLM.

The Rwandan historian was convicted for having done nothing to stop the inflammatory content of the RTLM radio programmes after 6 April 1994, as he had, according to the judgment, an authority on the personnel of the radio station.

Ferdinand Nahimana appealed his conviction, and the trial before the Appeals Chamber opened on 16 January 2007. On 28 November 2007, the Appeals Chamber reduced his prison term to 30 years. The Appeals Chamber overturned some of his convictions, notably those which concerned events that had taken place before 1994. The Appeals Chamber also overturned the initial conclusion that there had been an agreement between the RTLM, the CDR, and Kangura to assist in committing genocide. It therefore reversed the charges against Nahimana under Article 6 (1) of the Statute, but upheld those under Article 6(3)—namely, those of "inciting directly and publicly to the commission of genocide and for persecution as a crime against humanity" by means of the RTLM broadcasts after 6 April 1994.

In December 2008, he has been transferred from Arusha of Tanzania to Mali. In 2016, he was released.

Controversy over conviction A 2010 book written by journalist and historian Hervé Deguine argues that the motives invoked in Nahimana's trial were based on very little evidence except that he founded and was one of the owners of the radio station, exposing arguments and circumstantial evidence against his conviction. Although Deguine had himself contributed to Nahimana's conviction, he concludes his book by affirming that on the basis of judicial proofs, Nahimana should be released.