Straton Musoni, the former Vice President of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) has been deported to Rwanda where he will settle after completing his eight-year sentence in Germany.

According to The New Times, Musoni arrived in Rwanda on Friday 21st October 2022.

He was handed the sentence in 2015 by Stuttgart Court in Germany on counts of leading a terrorist organization. He was accused of with the then President of FDLR, Ignace Murwanashyaka handed 13-year sentence after he was found guilty of war crimes in relation to five FDLR attacks in eastern Congo and of leading a terrorist organization.

At the time, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal by Musoni, who was given an eight-year sentence, but overturned Murwanashyaka’s conviction and sent his case back for a retrial.

The court cited legal errors in the reasoning of the original verdict that could have counted both for and against Murwanashyaka, including doubts about the war crimes conviction and whether he encouraged or facilitated attacks on villages.

It also said that section of the Stuttgart court’s verdict was contradictory in parts.

Murwanashyaka and Musoni lived in Germany where they had been granted asylum and coordinated FDLR.

They were charged with 26 crimes against humanity and 39 war crimes.

The duo was arrested in 2009 in Germany while their trial began in 2011.

Musoni was born in 1961 and settled in Germany in 1986 where he worked as a computer specialist.

He returns to Rwanda after serving his sentence while his boss Murwanashyaka died in prison in 2019 before completing his sentence.

AE News