In a trial that goes back nearly three decades, a Rwandan gynecologist is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 massacres in his homeland Rwanda.
Almost 30 years after a complaint against him was filed in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux in 1995, Sosthene Munyemana faces justice at a Paris court.
Since 1994, the 68-year-old former doctor has lived in France after being accused of organizing torture and killings during the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. He is not held in custody but is under judicial control.
It is the sixth such trial in France of an alleged participant in the massacres, in which around 1 million people, most of them ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered over 100 days.
“We’re waiting for justice to be done at last,” said Rachel Lindon, a lawyer representing 26 victims.
“The more time passes, the fewer witnesses we have,” she added.
After working for a decade in a hospital in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, southwest France, Munyemana applied for asylum in 2008.
But it also in 2010 rejected an extradition request from Rwanda after Munyemana’s lawyers argued he could not receive a fair trial there.
In 2011, a French court charged the father of three on suspicion he had taken part in the 1994 genocide.
Munyemana, who denies the charges, faces life in prison if convicted.
