The French court, Cour d’Assises in Paris, has condemned Rwandan national Claude Muhayimana to 14 years in prison over his role in the Genocide against the Tutsi, a judicial source revealed Friday.
Muhayimana has been facing charges of genocide, complicity in genocide, and crimes against humanity all committed in the former Kibuye Prefecture in south western Rwanda, where he worked as a driver in 1994.
The prosecution initially requested that he be jailed 15 years but after deliberation by the jury, the 60-year-old will now face a 14-year sentence.
Muhayimana was accused of participating in the massacre of the Tutsi in the Saint-Jean compound in Kibuye town and in Gatwaro stadium, where thousands were killed.
He worked as a driver at a hotel in Kibuye but dozens of witnesses who appeared in court testified of how he used the vehicle to transport Interahamwe militia to various localities where they massacred Tutsis.
Kibuye, where tens of thousands of Tutsi were killed, was presumably among the areas protected under Operation Turquoise, a military mission by French armed forces.
The “multilateral” force led by France consisted of 2,500 troops, 32 from Senegal and the rest French.
According to some testimonies, the “Operation Turquoise” was aimed only at protecting genocide perpetrators, because the genocide continued even within the Turquoise zone.” France has always denied any role in the killing
Muhayimana is the fourth Genocide convict tried and sentenced in France.
The first one is Pascal Simbikangwa, who was in 2014 sentenced to 25 years, followed by the joint trial of Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi who were both handed life imprisonment in 2016.
France remains a haven for many masterminds of the Genocide in which over a million people were killed, including former First Lady Agatha Kanziga Habyarimana, a core member of Akazu, the small clique of elites who were at the heart of preparation of the massacre.
CU/abj/APA