ARUSHA, Tanzania (AFP) -- Prosecutors for a UN-backed court began wrapping up their case Monday in one of the world's longest penal trials, accusing a Rwandan ex-minister of participating in the country's 1994 genocide.

“Instead of protecting the families as her ministry stipulates, she decided to exterminate the families,” prosecutor Holo Makwaia of the Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said of former family minister Pauline Nyiramasuhuko.
The first women charged by an international court with genocide and incitement to rape, Nyiramasuhuko also remains the only woman still detained by the ICTR in a trial that began in 2001.
The ex-minister claims she is innocent of the killing and rape that took place in the southern Rwandan city of Butare 15 years ago. She is appearing with her son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, who at 39 is the court's youngest detainee.
“Shalom Ntahobali was not far from his mother, he killed and raped,” Makwaia said, echoing arguments made by other members of the prosecution team.
The trial also involves a pair of former regional administrators of Butare, Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryayo, along with two ex-mayors.
Makwaia claims that without the involvement of the six accused, a genocide would not have taken place in Butare.
Overall, some 800,000 people -- mostly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus -- died in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
The prosecution is expected to close its arguments Tuesday before the defense makes its final case.