Genocide in Rwanda: Laurent Bucyibaruta condemned for not having chosen “the path of disobedience”

The Paris Assize Court condemned the former prefect of Gikongoro to twenty years in prison for “complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity”.

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Reading the judgment, he has no movement, no reaction. Tuesday July 12, after about eleven hours of deliberations, the Paris Assize Court sentenced Laurent Bucyibarta, Rwandan prefect during the Tutsi genocide, at twenty years in prison. The former senior official, against whom the public prosecutor had requested life imprisonment, was acquitted as an author of genocide but found guilty of “complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity”, especially for the massacres of The Murambi school and the parishes of Cyanika and Kaduha, April 21, 1994. On the whole of his prefecture in Gikongoro, located in southwest Rwanda, 125,000 Tutsi were exterminated during the spring of 1994.

“This is a relative disappointment,” said Alain Gauthier, president of the collective of civil parties for Rwanda (CPCR), at the end of the court: “The fact that the accused is only sentenced to facts for facts complicity is not satisfactory. “” It is a relief, but it leaves a bitter taste, “deplored Etienne Nsanzimana, president of Ibuka France, one of the main associations of victims of the genocide, also civil party: “At the time of this verdict, I have a thought for all ours who, during the massacres, were sentenced to death and without any judgment.” The defense, who had asked for acquittal, refused to comment Judgment.

weak and monocord voice

Begun on May 9, this trial was the fourth in France in connection with the Tutsi genocide, the first for a senior official. It is a weakened man of 78 years who presented himself every day in the courtroom, following a complaint filed in 2000 by the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Survie Association. After invariably tidying up his cane under the office of his lawyers, Laurent Bucyibarta, a refugee in France since 1997, had been sitting down and listening to the debates, sometimes getting rid of. During his hearings, from Monday 4 to Wednesday, July 6, he spoke in a weak and monocorde voice.

/Media reports.