Dutch appeals court on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment to a Hutu man for crimes that included the murder of hundreds of women and children in a church complex during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Joseph Mpambara was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a criminal court in March 2009 because of persecution against people of ethnic Tutsis in 1994, but at that time freed from the (alleged) war crimes. Prosecutors and Mpambara, who pleaded not guilty, equally appeal the ruling. The appeals court was held under the Dutch law that allows prosecution of suspected war criminals living in the country.

"Crime in this case can be regarded as the most serious crimes are tried by a judge the Netherlands since World War II," the appeals court said that in punishing Mpambara.

Mpambara crimes including the killing of women and children, assault and kidnapping in the central African country (Rwanda), where 800,000 minority Tutsis and the Hutus who are politically moderate, was killed in a 100-day massacre by Hutu militias.

43-year-old defendant was convicted of involvement in the murder of "at least hundreds" of Tutsi refugees who took shelter in a Seventh Day Adventist church complex, with hitting, hurting, and shot them. The court ruled that Mpambara took part in the killing of two Tutsi women and their children are injured and beaten to death with machetes and batons as they tried to flee in an ambulance.

He was also convicted of threatening a German doctor, a Tutsi wife and their baby boy at a roadblock. The courts have handed in their compensation. Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, who represents victims in the case, said the verdict was an "expression of the international community".

Mpambara, who wore jeans, white shirt and sneakers, requested asylum in the Netherlands in 1998 and was arrested in 2006, remained silent when the verdict was read.