France to Try Former Rwandan Officer Over 1994 Genocide Charges

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Paris: A French court has ordered the trial of former Rwandan army lieutenant colonel Cyprien Kayumba on charges of complicity in genocide, for allegedly supplying weapons used during the 1994 mass killings.

The case is part of a series of trials in France linked to the genocide between April and July 1994, in which more than 800,000 people—mostly from the Tutsi minority—were killed.

Kayumba, 71, who belongs to the Hutu majority, previously headed a department in Rwanda’s defence ministry responsible for procuring and distributing weapons during the genocide. He has lived in France since 1998 and maintains that he was unaware the weapons would be used in the killings.

Judges have ordered that he stand trial at a later date on charges of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. As part of the ruling, he has been instructed to surrender his passport and is barred from leaving France. His lawyers described the decision as a shock.

The ruling follows a reversal of an earlier decision in January, when an investigating magistrate had recommended against holding a trial after a probe lasting more than two decades. Prosecutors handling crimes against humanity appealed that decision.

France has previously prosecuted several Rwandans under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to try serious crimes committed abroad. Earlier this year, a Paris court sentenced a former hotel chauffeur to 14 years in prison for assisting militias during the genocide.