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French court sentences former top Rwandan official to 20 years in prison for genocide

#French #court #sentences #top #Rwandan #official #years #prison #genocide

A French court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior Rwandan official to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of complicity in the African nation’s genocide.

Laurent Bucyibaruta is the senior Rwandan to be tried in France for the 1994 massacres in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus mass murdered in 100 days.

At the heart of the 78-year-old’s case were several “security” meetings either ordered or attended by Bucyibaruta, at which prosecutors had argued they were actually planning meetings into the killings.

Specifically, the former prefect of the southern province of Gikongoro has been accused of persuading thousands of people to seek refuge at Murambi Technical School by promising them food, water and shelter.

Days later, in the early hours of April 21, tens of thousands of Tutsis were executed there in one of the bloodiest episodes of the genocide.

The court also examined Bucyibaruta’s responsibility for the May 7, 1994 massacre of around 90 Tutsi students at Marie Merci School in Kibeho and for the execution of Tutsi prisoners – including three priests – in Gikongoro prison.

During his trial, Bucyibaruta denied any involvement in the killings.

“I was never on the side of the killers,” Bucyibaruta said in court when his trial ended on Tuesday.

In an apparent message to the survivors of the genocide, he said, “I want to tell you that I never thought of leaving you to the killers.”

He added: “Did I lack courage? Could I have saved her? Those questions, even those regrets, have haunted me for over 28 years.”

His lawyers had asked the court to make “a courageous decision” and acquit him.

– court cases –

The trial involved more than 100 testimonies, including some from Rwandan survivors, either in person or via video conference.

Bucyibaruta, who has been in France since 1997, has a myriad of health problems and was allowed to remain under house arrest to receive treatments during the trial.

France has long been pressured by activists to crack down on suspected Rwandan perpetrators who subsequently sought refuge on French soil.

The French government at the time of the genocide was a longtime supporter of the Hutu regime in power, which has since caused tensions between countries for decades.

A separate French probe into the act that sparked the genocide – the downing of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane – was dropped earlier this year.

Investigators had suspected rebels under the command of Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame – now President of Rwanda – were responsible for attacking the plane as it landed in the Rwandan capital.

Kagame has always denied this.

Four people in three cases have already been convicted of genocide by French courts: a former hotel driver has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, an army officer to 25 years in prison and two mayors to life imprisonment.

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