( CNN ) -- A former Rwandan minister has been jailed for life for genocide and incitement to rape at the United Nations-backed court for Rwanda in Tanzania . Pauline Nyiramasuhuko , who is the only woman to be convicted by the court , was minister for family and women 's affairs in the Rwandan government when some 800,000 people , mainly ethnic Tutsis , were killed in 1994 . She was accused of direct and public incitement to commit genocide and of being responsible for rape `` as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on political , ethnic and racial grounds , '' the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ( ICTR ) said . Her son , Arsene Shalom Ntahobali , a militia leader who was jointly charged in the case , was also convicted Friday of genocide , crimes against humanity including rape and persecution and war crimes , and sentenced to life in prison . Four local officials who were accused alongside Nyiramasuhuko and her son were all found guilty of genocide and other charges . They were handed prison terms ranging from 25 years to life . Nyiramasuhuko , who was arrested in 1997 in Kenya , and taken to the U.N. court in Tanzania to await trial , was found guilty of seven of the counts she faced , ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga told CNN . They included charges of genocide , conspiracy to commit genocide , war crimes and crimes against humanity including rape and persecution . Two charges were dismissed , one of complicity to commit genocide and a second relating to murder and crimes against humanity . She was also cleared of two charges , one alleging direct and public incitement to commit genocide and another of inhumane acts and crimes against humanity . The court found that Nyiramasuhuko was a member of the Interim Government that issued directives whose intention `` was to encourage the population to hunt down and take action against the 'enemy ' and its 'accomplices ' ; terms which referred to Tutsis in general . '' Nyiramasuhuko also participated in many Cabinet meetings at which the massacre of Tutsis was discussed , `` and she took part in the decisions that triggered the onslaught of massacres in Butare prefecture . '' Between April and mid-June 1994 , hundreds of Tutsis were rounded up by militia members in her home district of Butare and many subjected to assaults and rape , the court said . During this time , Nyiramasuhuko ordered killings and `` aided and abetted rapes '' of vulnerable civilians , some of which were committed by her son , the court said . The six sentenced Friday will remain in detention in Tanzania pending an appeals process . If their convictions are upheld , the head of the tribunal will then decide what state to transfer them to to serve their sentences , said Amoussouga , the ICTR spokesman . The ICTR said it had been a complex and lengthy case , involving 189 witnesses and almost 13,000 pages of documents . While Nyiramasuhuko is the only woman to have been convicted by the ICTR , other women have been jailed for their roles in the genocide by courts elsewhere . A Roman Catholic nun was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a traditional Rwandan court in 2006 for her part in the killings . Two other Catholic nuns were found guilty of genocide charges by a court in Belgium in 2001 . The Rwandan genocide was triggered by the April 6 , 1994 , shooting down of a plane carrying the nation 's Hutu president . Ethnic violence erupted and Tutsis were killed systematically by Hutus . The United Nations estimates that some 200,000 people participated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide . In all , 800,000 men , women , and children -- mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus -- died . CNN 's Umaro Djau contributed to this report .
Nyiramasuhuko is the only woman to be convicted by the U.N.-backed court for Rwanda . She was minister for family and women 's affairs at the time of the mass killings . The U.N. tribunal found that she had "failed in her duty as a public official" when she ordered the killing of more than 800,000 people during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which began with an attack Some 800,000 people , mainly ethnic Tutsis , died in the violence .