6 Plead Not Guilty to Charges in ’94 Genocide

A former Rwandan Cabinet minister, the first woman to face rape and genocide charges in an international court, pleaded not guilty as her trial opened in Arusha, Tanzania.

The tribunal investigating Rwanda’s 1994 genocide heard not guilty pleas from six defendants as it began its biggest mass trial of genocide suspects.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a former minister of family and women’s affairs, is accused of inciting ethnic Hutus to rape minority ethnic Tutsis during the genocide that claimed more than 800,000 lives. Her son Arsene Shalom Ntahobali is among the defendants.