Juvenal Rugambarara, the 48-year-old former mayor of Bicumbi near the capital Kigali, was arrested in Uganda in August 2003.
"He was found guilty of extermination because he failed ... to take necessary and reasonable measures (to investigate) the crimes committed in the commune and for the apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators," the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said in a statement.
The ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania, is prosecuting the architects of the genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people were killed.
The tribunal said Rugambarara was entitled to credit for time spent in detention since his arrest.
It had earlier charged him with nine counts including genocide, but dropped eight of them following two years of negotiations between his lawyers and the ICTR prosecutors.
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