France-based genocide convict Claude Muhayimana has been released from jail and placed under judicial supervision ahead of an appeal he will be filing soon. The 61-year-old who worked as a hotel driver in the former Kibuye Prefecture was sentenced to a 14-year jail term by France’s Cour d’Assises in 2021, having found him guilty of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity in the hills of Karongi, Gitwa and Bisesero between April and June 1994. He was also accused of transporting gendarmes and Interahamwe militiamen to the sites of massacres of the Tutsi in Kibuye and the surrounding hills, where tens of thousands of people were killed. After more than a year since his conviction, he will be back in court to appeal. The Paris Court of Appeal has referred him to its investigative division, which ruled that the extension of his pre-trial detention did not appear to be “essential either for the needs of the proceedings pending the hearing or as a security measure.” “I find this decision wise and particularly justified since we have no idea when the appeal will be held,” said his lawyer, Philippe Meilhac, stressing that his client had “remained free during most of the investigation, without ever posing a problem.” Muhayimana is one of the very few genocide convicts tried and sentenced in France. The first was Pascal Simbikangwa, who in 2014 was sentenced to 25 years, followed by the joint trial of Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi who were both handed life imprisonment in 2016.
