French court to deliver verdict in appeal by two Genocide convicts

After two months of trial, a verdict is expected this Friday from a French Court in an appeal hearing where two Rwandan Genocide convicts living in France made a desperate final attempt to reverse or lessen a life sentence slapped on them in 2016. The appeal case of Octavian Ngenzi and Tito Barahira, successive Mayors (Bourgmestres) of the previously Kabarondo Commune, now part of the current Kayonza District, started May 2, at the Paris Cour dAssises. Two years ago, the duo was found guilty of Genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and sentenced to life in prison. They appealed. Early May, when the appeal hearing started, survivors of the Genocide called of the life sentence to be upheld. The two men particularly accused of participating in killings of Tutsi refugees at Kabarondo Catholic Church in April 1994 where more than 1,200 were killed. Alain Gauthier, president of Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a rights group which has for nearly two decades worked to bring Genocide suspects living in France to book, and his team camped in Paris throughout the appeal trial hoping that “at the end of this trial the accused will again be given the same sentence. In March 2016, the CPCR got a local partner when the Association Les Amis du Collectif des Parties Civiles pours le Rwanda (ACPCR) was launched to, among others, up the tempo; create awareness as well as fundraise so that the CPCR pays for the “very costly” trial. The ACPCR president, Dr Ezéchias Rwabuhihi, who is following the trial from Kigali, Thursday, told The New Times that they hope the life sentence will be upheld. Rwabuhihi said: “What we know now is that the Prosecutor in the appeal trial has requested court to confirm the life sentence as was the case in the initial trial. And we hope this sentence is upheld”. Other rights activists including Survie, the Fédération Internationale des Droits de lHomme (FIDH) and the Ligue des Droits de lHomme (LDH), the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), Ibuka France and the Rwandan community in France will be backing CPCR in various capacities. France has long been home to dozens of Genocide masterminds including Agathe Kanziga, the widow of President Juvénal Habyarimana, who was known as the matriarch of the so-called Akazu, a group of elites at the heart of the preparation of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Others are notorious Catholic priest, Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, who continues with his clerical work in France, despite overwhelming evidence implicating him in the Genocide and a host of other crimes including rape, among others.

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French court to deliver verdict in appeal by two Genocide convicts