The Cour d’assises de Paris has handed a 24-year prison sentence to Sosthène Munyemana, infamously known as the ‘Butcher of Tumba’ for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
A trained medical doctor, Munyemana was during the genocide working as a lecturer in the faculty of medicine at the University of Rwanda, and served as a gynecologist at the University Hospital in Butare (CHUB).
Following his sentencing by the French court, he was immediately placed under arrest, despite him having 10 days to lodge an appeal against the sentence, according to reports from the European country.
Munyemana, 68, has lived in France for over two decades despite an outstanding indictment for the genocide crimes he stood accused. His trial started on November 14 and lasted over a month before the court delivered a sentence on Tuesday, December 19.
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He was found guilty of charges including genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity in genocide.
Previously, French prosecutors had called for a 30-year prison sentence for Munyemana, a key figure in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, particularly in Tumba, now in Southern Province.
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Who is Munyemana?
Available information indicates that Munyemana was born in 1955 in Mbare, the former Commune of Musambira, in the former Gitarama prefecture which is part of the current Muhanga District.
After completing studies at the then National University of Rwanda, in Butare [current Huye], Munyemana specialised in gynecology at the University of Bordeaux II in France. On his return, he worked at CHUB and taught at the then-national university which was also based in Huye.
During the Genocide, Munyemana resided in Gitwe cell, in Tumba Sector and witness accounts indicate that he was on leave from the end of March to early May 1994, when he participated in the Genocide, after which he fled to France.
He fled to France after the genocide and continued his medical practice at Villeneuve-sur-Lot Hospital despite an indictment against him which was filed as early as 1995.
An international arrest warrant was issued by Rwanda and he was placed under Interpol red notice in 2006. He applied for refugee status, which was denied in 2008. In 2010, Rwanda requested France to extradite him, without success.
In 2007, Gacaca courts tried him in absentia and sentenced him to 30 years in jail, for genocide crimes committed at CHUB and in Tumba where he lived. In 2010, the Ngoma Gacaca Court, on appeal, upheld his sentence in absentia after proving his role in the planning and execution of the Genocide in the city of Butare, especially at CHUB where he reportedly killed women and children.
He becomes the seventh person to be tried for the Genocide against the Tutsi by a French court. The first genocide trial in France took place in 2014 during which Pascal Simbikangwa, a former intelligence operative was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Other fugitives who have been tried in France are; Tito Barahira, Octavien Ngenzi, Claude Muhayimana, Laurent Bucyibaruta, and Philippe Hategekimana.