Former Rwandan doctor jailed for ethnic cleansing
A former Rwandan doctor, Sosthene Munyemana, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison by a French court for his role in the 1994 genocide in his home country. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by extremist Hutu factions during the East African nation’s 100-day bloodbath nearly three decades ago.
The Assize Court in Paris on Wednesday found Munyemana, 68, guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to organize such atrocities.
The former gynecologist is said to have moved to France months after the genocide, where Rwandans first filed a complaint against him in 1995 in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux. Munyemana was indicted in Paris in December 2011 for his role in the massacres and placed under judicial control.
Prosecutors have accused him of assisting in drafting “a motion of support” for the interim government led by former prime minister Jean Kambanda, which oversaw the killings. He also allegedly took part in meetings that organized the capture of Tutsi civilians in Butare, Rwanda, where he was living at the time.
The prosecutors had requested a 30-year prison sentence for Munyemana, who denied any wrongdoing but claimed he participated in local night patrols to protect the local population, according to the Associated Press. His attorneys said they intended to appeal the verdict.
France has reportedly been a popular destination for those implicated in the Rwandan genocide who have fled justice.
Munyemana’s trial is the sixth in France of an alleged participant in the genocide that occurred between April and July 1994.
In June, a court in Paris sentenced a 66-year-old former Rwandan military police officer, Philippe Hategekimana, to life in prison for the same charges. Hategekimana allegedly fled to France following the ethnic cleansing and obtained French citizenship under a false identity in 2005.
Meanwhile, the Brussels Assize Court in Belgium is set to sentence two Rwandans, Seraphin Twahirwa and Pierre Basabose, on Thursday after finding them guilty of genocide and war crimes committed in the African country.
On Tuesday, the court found the two liable for multiple murders and attempted murders of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Kigali.
