France: Muhayimana verdict due on Thursday

The French court, Cour d’ Assises Paris is set to deliver a verdict in a case involving genocide suspect Claude Muhayimana on Thursday, December 16. The trial started on November 22 after being postponed on several occasions. Muhayimana faces charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, and crimes against humanity, mainly committed in his home area of Kibuye (presently Karongi District) during the Genocide against the Tutsi. He is particularly accused of participating in the massacre of the Tutsi in the Saint-Jean compound in the town of Kibuye and in Gatwaro stadium, killing people in the area. After proving his participation in genocide crimes, the French prosecution requested that he should be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Richard Gisagara, a Rwandan lawyer based in France who is following closely the case, said that he considers the requested 15 years to be less compared to Muhayimana’s charges but “the court is not obliged to do as per request of the prosecution, it might sentence him to more or less years.” Briefly, he said that different witnesses came to testify what happened, what they did alongside with him and some survivors testified that they saw him, but there are also those who testified in his favour, mainly those living in Italy, Malawi and France. Muhayimana worked as a driver at a hotel in the former Kibuye prefecture in western Rwanda, and he is accused of transporting Interahamwe militia to various localities where they massacred Tutsis. He is said to have worked closely with then prefect of Kibuye, Clément Kayishema, who ordered the massacre of thousands of people who had sought refuge at the stadium. Kayishema was tried and convicted by a UN court and died in 2016 in a prison in Mali, where he was serving a life sentence. Muhayimana’s trial was also crucial, owing to the fact that it was the first time that the French public, through the hearing, got to know about what happened in Bisesero, also in the former Kibuye where over 50,000 Tutsi were killed. These killings took place in this region that was presumably protected under Operation Tourqouise, a military mission by French armed forces. Muhayimana is the fourth Genocide suspect to be tried in France. The first to be tried and sentenced was Pascal Simbikangwa, who was in 2014 sentenced to 25 years, followed by the joint trial of Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi who were both handed life imprisonment in 2016. However, France remains a haven for many masterminds of the Genocide in which over a million people were killed, including former First Lady Agatha Kanziga Habyarimana, a core member of Akazu, the small clique of elites who were at the heart of preparation of the massacre.

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France: Muhayimana verdict due on Thursday