The trial of Claude Muhayimana, a genocide suspect living in France, is expected to start on November 22 after being postponed several times and thus delayed for over a year. According to Alain Gauthier, head of the France-based Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), an organisation based in France that seeks Genocide suspects living there to be brought to book, the trial is expected to take place from November 22 to December 17. I hope this is the last postponement, Gauthier told The New Times on Friday, February 19. In January, the CPCR expressed anger after the trial that was supposed to be held in February was postponed, for a second time. The trial was earlier scheduled to run from September 29 to October 23, 2020. But last September it was pushed to February 2 to 26, 2021. Before it could start, however, the CPCR learned from its lawyers that there had been another postponement. The rights group has always wished the trial can proceed as quickly as possible. Muhayimana, who has been a naturalized French citizen since 2010 faces charges of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity through aiding and assisting such crimes. Municipal employee in Rouen According to the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Muhayimana was one of the top Interahamwe leaders in the then Kibuye town who played a big role, as a driver, while transporting killers to places where they massacred people during the Genocide. Besides transporting killers, he is suspected to have also killed people in the area. In 2014, he was arrested in Frances northern city of Rouen after a year-long investigation triggered by a complaint by the CPCR. Muhayimana still resides in Rouen, a region of France where, sources say, many other genocide fugitives live. It is not yet clear what exactly he does but sources say he is a municipal employee in Rouen. Muhayimana is divorced but his ex-wife also lives in France. The rights group accuses him of having regularly transported Interahamwe militia to the hills of Karongi and Bisesero where they murdered people en-masse. If he is eventually brought before court for trial, he will be the third person to be tried for the Genocide against the Tutsi in France. The other two trials that have taken place in France include that of Pascal Simbikangwa, former senior intelligence officer who was given a 25-year sentence in 2014. In 2016, Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira, two former mayors in eastern Rwanda, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
