Court throws out Kanziga’s application to gag French TV

PARIS - A French court has thrown out petitions by the former First Lady, Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, a prominent Genocide fugitive, to prevent the airing of a documentary on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi by a French television station, France 2. Mrs Habyarimana and two other Genocide fugitives had filed a complaint in the Tribunal de Paris against the screening of the documentary titled “Genocide in Rwanda: the killers among us?” to be aired by the public television channel. The documentary is part of a collection of investigative documentaries called “The great hunt,” by journalist Manolo Arthuys. Habyarimana’s two co-complainants were ex-FAR lieutenant-colonel, Marcel Bivugabagabo, and Dr. Charles Twagira, both Genocide suspects. On Thursday, the judge of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, Emmanuel Binoche, dismissed the trio’s lawsuit. Alain Gauthier, President of the France-based activists - “Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda” (CPCR), told The New Times that: “Kanziga, who had asked the two to join her, claimed that the documentary which puts them into question did not respect the “presumption of innocence.” Her request for asylum has been turned down twice by the French interior ministry but she continues to live in the European country. She is among the most wanted fugitives responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Like Habyarimana, Bivugabagabo is also on Interpol’s Wanted list. He is as wanted by Prosecution in Rwanda for Genocide, complicity in Genocide, assassination, extermination, and crimes against humanity. Twagira on the other hand was sentenced by a Gacaca court to life in prison for organizing and taking part in the Genocide. Ends

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Court throws out Kanziga’s application to gag French TV