ARUSHA, Tanzania (CNN) -- A U.N. tribunal will issue the world's first international court verdict on genocide Wednesday, in the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 minority Tutsis in Rwanda.

Jean-Paul Akayesu, an ethnic Hutu and former mayor of the central village of Taba, has maintained his innocence on 15 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and rape. His trial began in January 1997.

Prosecutors accuse Akayesu of ordering the killings of 2,000 people during the three-month genocide of more than half a million ethnic Tutsis that began in April 1994.

The killings ended when mainly Tutsi rebels fought their way to power. In November 1994, the United Nations set up a tribunal to bring the leading architects of the genocide to justice.

Victims of the 1994 massacre

Witnesses told the tribunal, based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, that Akayesu delivered a speech several weeks after the genocide began, urging Hutus to kill Tutsis. Witnesses said the killings started the next day.

One woman told the court Akayesu dragged her from her home, had her beaten and tortured and then made her lie down in front of his car while he threatened to run her over.

Defense lawyer Nicholas Taingaye, at closing arguments in March, maintained his client's innocence and said the former teacher should be acquitted because "a wrongful conviction would lend credence to the tribunal's detractors."

His lawyers also argue that Akayeso was forced to obey orders, and actually risked his life trying to save Tutsis.

On Friday, the court -- formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda -- was scheduled to sentence former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, who led Rwanda's government during the 1994 genocide. Kambanda pleaded guilty in May and promised to testify against other alleged ringleaders of the slaughter.

The United Nations said Kambanda was the first person ever to plead guilty to genocide charges before an international tribunal, and the judgment on Akayesu will be the first for the crime of genocide by an international court under a 1948 treaty. It also will be the tribunal's first verdict since it was set up in November 1994.

The verdict will be "a pivotal moment in the history of international criminal law," according to a U.N. statement. "These two landmark decisions will, for the first time, bring to practical life the lofty ideals of the Genocide Convention," the statement said.

It also will be the first time an international court rules on sexual violence -- the indictment against Akayesu was amended mid-trial to include charges of rape.

The tribunal has been criticized as slow and incompetent, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan fired top officials after a damning internal report last year.

Judge Lennart Aspegren of Sweden said he will resign at the end of this year, six months early, to protest bad management and inadequate working conditions.

Rwandans themselves have come to expect little from the tribunal. "Everyone wants to see justice prevail, but no one is confident it will," said Mary Balikungeri, director of the Hope Clinic, which counsels Tutsi women who survived the genocide. "It is like a dream to them. It has been far too long."

Rwandan courts have held their own genocide trials, criticized by foreign lawyers as often unjust. Rwanda has tried at least 330 people, and 116 have been sentenced to death. More than 125,000 people are imprisoned and awaiting trial.

On April 24, the Rwandan government executed 22 genocide convicts by firing squad, the first executions for the slaughter.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.