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One of three men convicted of a brutal 2015 home invasion robbery deserves at least 10 years in prison, a Crown prosecutor told a sentencing hearing on Monday.

But the lawyer for Jean Bertrand Havyarimana argued he deserves no more than eight years, partly because of the violent upbringing he suffered as a youngster during the civil war in his native Burundi in Africa.

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“In that war, 300,000 people died and two of those people killed in that uprising were his brothers,” said Cory Wilson, adding his client came to Canada in 2008 and became a Canadian citizen two years later.

“One can only imagine what kind of carnage Mr. Havyarimana saw in his lifetime, it greatly influenced the significant criminality.”

He said the man’s experience as a “war child” shouldn’t be used as an excuse but as a mitigating factor.

As he spoke, Havyarimana appeared pacing and stroking his hair on closed circuit TV from the Calgary Remand Centre.