The Cour d’Assises de Paris will begin the trial of Dr Eugene Rwamucyo, who is accused of involvement in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The trial is set to run from October 1-31, marking the ninth Genocide-related trial in France. Rwamucyo is the eighth Rwandan national to be tried in France for his role in the Genocide, which claimed over one million lives.
Around 60 witnesses and experts are expected to testify during the proceedings.
ALSO READ: Rwamucyo was sentenced to life- Gacaca
Rwamucyo faces multiple charges, including genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, complicity in crimes against humanity, conspiracy to commit genocide, and other crimes against humanity committed in the former Butare Prefecture, in today’s Southern Province.
On September 2, 2009, the Ngoma Gacaca Court in Huye District sentenced Rwamucyo to life imprisonment in absentia, after he was convicted of forming gangs of killers, inciting genocide, supplying equipment used in killings, kidnapping Tutsi women and girls, and identifying and counting the dead
Who is Dr. Rwamucyo?
Born on June 6, 1959, in Gatonde commune, Ruhengeri prefecture, Rwamucyo is a specialist in occupational medicine, environmental and industrial hygiene, and toxicology.
He worked at the University Centre for Public Health (CUSP), today’s University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB) in Huye District and lectured at the then National University of Rwanda.
He fled the country after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, and reports say he was denied refugee status by the UNHCR in Côte d’Ivoire, in 1995.
Between 2001 and 2007 he worked as a medical specialist in various places and capacities in France.
ALSO READ: Why can’t France try Dr. Eugene Rwamucyo?
In May 2008, he got a job as a doctor in a city hospital in Maubeuge, northern France, near the Belgian border.
However, he was temporarily dismissed there in October 2009 following the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR) charges against him over the his role in the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Rwamucyo is suspected of being one of the masterminds of the Genocide against the Tutsi in southern Rwanda, in 1994.
On September 12, 2002, he was denied refugee status in France and in April 2007 the CPCR presented its charges against him to the public prosecutor’s department in Lille where he worked.
ALSO READ: Who is Dr. Rwamucyo - Genocide suspect to be tried soon in France?
In August 2007, Rwanda indicted him and sent an international arrest warrant to Interpol. In November of the same year, the initial CPCR complaint was handed to a court in Paris.
In February 2008, French prosecutors started investigating the case against him. He was dismissed from Maubeuge Hospital in April 2010.
On May 26, 2010, Rwamucyo was arrested in Sannois, north of Paris, while attending the funeral of Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, another Rwandan who was convicted for genocide by the now-defunct International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR).
Rwamucyo was detained in Bois d’Arcy, a community in north-central France. On September 15, 2010, the French appeals court in Versailles refused to hand him over to Rwanda and immediately set him free.
On December 21, 2018, the investigation into his case started, leading to his indictment issued on April 17, 2020.