Aloys Simba (r)

A United Nations tribunal has convicted a former Rwandan army officer of genocide and extermination in connection to the country's 1994 massacres.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced Aloys Simba to 25 years in jail Tuesday. The ex-colonel was found guilty of distributing guns and grenades to his Hutu militia followers for the purpose of killing ethnic Tutsis.

The tribunal said Simba would be credited for the four years he spent in prison after being arrested in Senegal in 2001.

Simba was acquitted of one murder charge and two charges of conspiracy to commit genocide. Simba had denied all of the charges against him.

Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 minority Tutsis and their moderate Hutu supporters in Rwanda during the 1994 killing spree.