Former Rwandan army official faces trial for being complicit in genocide
Hailing it as ‘history being made’, albeit ‘late’, Rwanda’s justice minister welcomed the opening of the trial of Pascal Simbikangwa nearly 20 years after the 100-day genocide shocked the world.
The case of Simbikangwa, who denies all accusations against him, is being closely watched in France, which has long been accused of failing to rein in the Rwandan regime at the time of the genocide in 1994.
The trial began with an immediate request from Simbikangwa’s lawyers for the case to be dismissed.
One of them, Alexandra Bourgeot, said the case could not be treated fairly because of the ‘inequality of power’ between the prosecution and defence.
lawyers said they did not have the ‘means’ to properly defend him and had not even been able to visit Rwanda to verify prosecution evidence.
The 54-year-old defendant appeared in court in a wheelchair after a 1986 car accident that left him a paraplegic. He faces life in prison.
Arrested in 2008 on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, he is accused of inciting, organising and aiding massacres during the genocide, particularly by supplying arms and instructions to militia who were manning road blocks and killing Tutsi men, women and children.
‘I was a captain in the Rwandan army then in the intelligence services,’ Simbikangwa, a small, bald man wearing a brown jacket and white tracksuit bottoms, told the court in a brief opening statement.
After his arrest, France refused to extradite him to Rwanda, as it has done in previous cases, and decided to try him under laws that allow French courts to consider cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in other countries.
‘HISTORY BEING MADE’
Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye welcomed the opening of the trial. ‘It is history being made. We have always wondered why it has taken 20 years... it is late, but it is a good sign,’ he said.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks and, in a rare case for France, will be filmed, with recordings available once the case is concluded.
After jury selection, the first few weeks are expected to lay out the historical context for the genocide.
Simbikangwa acknowledges being close to the regime of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on 6 April 1994, unleashed the genocide, in which most of the victims were members of the minority Tutsi community.
The case of Simbikangwa, who denies all accusations against him, is being closely watched in France, which has long been accused of failing to rein in the Rwandan regime at the time of the genocide in 1994.
The trial began with an immediate request from Simbikangwa’s lawyers for the case to be dismissed.
One of them, Alexandra Bourgeot, said the case could not be treated fairly because of the ‘inequality of power’ between the prosecution and defence.
lawyers said they did not have the ‘means’ to properly defend him and had not even been able to visit Rwanda to verify prosecution evidence.
The 54-year-old defendant appeared in court in a wheelchair after a 1986 car accident that left him a paraplegic. He faces life in prison.
Arrested in 2008 on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, he is accused of inciting, organising and aiding massacres during the genocide, particularly by supplying arms and instructions to militia who were manning road blocks and killing Tutsi men, women and children.
‘I was a captain in the Rwandan army then in the intelligence services,’ Simbikangwa, a small, bald man wearing a brown jacket and white tracksuit bottoms, told the court in a brief opening statement.
After his arrest, France refused to extradite him to Rwanda, as it has done in previous cases, and decided to try him under laws that allow French courts to consider cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in other countries.
‘HISTORY BEING MADE’
Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye welcomed the opening of the trial. ‘It is history being made. We have always wondered why it has taken 20 years... it is late, but it is a good sign,’ he said.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks and, in a rare case for France, will be filmed, with recordings available once the case is concluded.
After jury selection, the first few weeks are expected to lay out the historical context for the genocide.
Simbikangwa acknowledges being close to the regime of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on 6 April 1994, unleashed the genocide, in which most of the victims were members of the minority Tutsi community.