Rwandan genocide suspect living in Belgium has to appear in French court
The Rwandan doctor Eugène Rwamucyo will have to appear before the French Court of Assizes to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. The Paris court of appeal confirmed the news on Wednesday, judicial sources reported to AFP.
France's National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) ruled that Rwamucyo (63) should appear before the French Court of Assizes back in October 2020, but the doctor appealed at the time.
Rwanda accuses the doctor of having participated in meetings with those responsible for the 1994 genocide in Butare, southern Rwanda. One of those meetings took place with the approval of Jean Kambanda, Rwandan prime minister at the time. Kambanda was sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in The Hague.
The doctor denies any involvement in the genocide and his lawyer is already preparing to appeal to the Court of cassation. The case is paper-thin, according to Rwamucyo's lawyer.
Rwamucyo was already sentenced to life in absentia in 2007. In 2009, the French hospital where he was employed suspended him after learning that an international arrest warrant had been issued by Rwanda. He was subsequently fired. Rwamucyo was arrested near Paris in 2010 but was released a few months later. The doctor currently lives in Belgium.
(KOR)
Eugène Rwamucyo during a 2009 interview in Lille, France © AFP PHOTO PHILIPPE HUGUEN