French activists riled by release of Genocide suspect

The decision by a French appeals court to release a Rwandan man suspected of participating in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi has riled a French rights group which first filed a suit against him in 2009. The suspect, Dr. Charles Twagira, who was first indicted in March 2014 for genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda, was reportedly released on May 22. In 2009, he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a Rwandan court for crimes against humanity and genocide. That year, Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a France-based umbrella organisation which advocates for the rights of Genocide survivors, sued him for involvement in the Genocide. Back then, Twagira who is accused of various counts of “Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and Complicity in crimes against humanity,” worked at a hospital in the city of Rouen and had just been naturalised as a French citizen. His recent release, CPCR President Alain Gauthier says, is inconsistent with true justice. “We especially feel for the families of victims. We could not imagine that, given the charges against him, Twagira could be released. We counted on the course of justice to tell the truth, but this decision casts doubt on the state of mind and serenity of the French magistrates,” Gauthier said. For 15 years, he said, the group has witnessed rulings that seem incomprehensible and totally unfair, but they will not give up. Gauthier says it is high time that the trials of Rwandan Genocide suspects take place on French territory. As much as Twagira’s release “revolts us,” he said, it also reinforces their commitment to carry on with the struggle for justice, in serving the victims. During the Genocide, Twagira worked as a regional health director in former Kibuye, western Rwanda, where he allegedly ordered the killings of tens of thousands of people, especially in the hospital he managed.

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French activists riled by release of Genocide suspect