France drops charges against Rwandan officials over attack that sparked genocide

Investigative magistrates in France have dropped charges against nine Rwandan officials investigated over the death of the country’s president in 1998, a judicial source said. France launched the investigation, that also targeted Rwanda’s former Defense Minister James Kabarebe, in 1998 following demands by relatives of the French crew who died when president Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was downed. The event led to a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people. The investigation, and accusations by Rwandan officials that France was complicit in the 1994 genocide, damaged relations between the two countries. The judicial source said on Wednesday that the charges were dropped on December 21, Reuters reports. A French prosecutor had recommended in October that the charges should be dismissed due to insufficient evidence. Rwanda said on December 24 that it welcomed the definitive end of “a politically-motivated investigation.”