A French court has sentenced a former Rwandan doctor to 27 years in prison for crimes related to his country’s 1994 genocide.
Eugène Rwamucyo was convicted of complicity in genocide, complicity in crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to prepare for those crimes by spreading propaganda and attempting to cover up evidence of mass murder.
The 65-year-old – who was acquitted of genocide and crimes against humanity – has denied any wrongdoing. Local media reported that his lawyers said they intended to appeal.
His trial is the eighth in France related to the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people died.
Tutsis and politically moderate Hutu were targeted in a 100-day massacre by Hutu extremists.
Prosecution lawyer Nicolas Peron said there was no evidence that Rwamucyo personally carried out the executions or acts of torture.
But he said the former doctor should not “avoid responsibility” because people can “kill people with words”.
Prosecutors accused Rwamucyo, born into a Hutu family, of spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda.
They also cited witness testimony, accusing him of helping bury victims in mass graves “in a last-ditch effort to destroy evidence of the genocide”.
The prosecution had asked for a 30-year prison sentence for him, while representatives for the survivors asked for life in prison.
According to the Associated Press, Angélique Uwamahoro, who was 13 years old during the genocide, said she saw Rwamucyo at a roadblock in the southern town of Butare and heard him encouraging militiamen to kill Tutsis.
“He wanted to incite them to kill us so we wouldn’t get out alive,” she said.
But Rwamucyo told the court: “I assure you that I did not order the survivors to be killed nor did I allow them to be killed.”
His lawyers argued that his participation in the burials in mass graves was because he wanted to avoid a “health crisis” that could occur if they were not buried.
They say he is being prosecuted because he disagrees with the current government in Rwanda.
In 2009, Rwamucyo was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by a local court in Rwanda. The French court rejected Rwanda’s extradition request.
He arrested in Sannois, north of Paris, in 2010 after attending the funeral of a former Rwandan official convicted of war crimes during the genocide.
In December, former doctor Sosthene Munyemana was imprisoned by a French court for 24 years for crimes including genocide and crimes against humanity. He was accused of organizing torture and killing during the genocide.
