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STOCKHOLM�Nov 5 (Reuters) – Sweden has charged a man of Rwandan origin with taking part in the killings of thousands of people during the 1994 genocide in his homeland, the prosecutor’s office said on Monday, the first such case in the Nordic country.

The man, an ethnic Hutu from Rwanda who is now a Swedish citizen, was named only as MS by prosecutors.

A trial is to start on Nov. 16 when the charges will be read in court. The man has denied the allegations.

He is alleged to have shot, macheted and thrown hand grenades at ethnic Tutsis in several attacks in Kibuye province in west Rwanda and to have recruited young men to take part in massacres.

“Genocide is the most serious crime that there is and it can bring a sentence of up to life in prison,” special prosecutor Magnus Elvin told Reuters.

Some hearings in the trial will be held in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, in late November and up to the middle of December. The proceeding is expected to last until May next year, he said.

In September, Norway began a trial of a Rwandan man accused of masterminding the murder of 2,000 people in the genocide.

In a span of 100 days in 1994, Hutu soldiers and militia killed around 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis. Rwanda is now under a Tutsi-dominated government.