A Paris court on Wednesday sentenced Eugène Rwamucyo, a former Rwandan doctor, to 27 years in prison for his involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Rwamucyo, 65, was convicted of “complicity in genocide,” “complicity in crimes against humanity,” and “conspiracy” to prepare for those crimes.
During the four-week trial, witnesses traveled from Rwanda to testify, providing detailed accounts of the atrocities committed in the Butare region, where Rwamucyo was present at the time.
This trial marks the seventh related to the genocide to be held in Paris in the past decade.
Angélique Uwamahoro, who was 13 during the genocide, said she attended the trial to “seek justice for my people, who died for who they were.” Uwamahoro recounted seeing Rwamucyo, her mother’s doctor, at a massacre site in a convent where her family had sought refuge. Many of the deceased were her relatives.
After escaping, she encountered Rwamucyo again at a roadblock in Butare, where he allegedly encouraged militiamen to kill Tutsis. “He wanted to incite them to kill us so we don’t get out alive,” she stated.
Other witnesses described mass graves and individuals burying bodies, including prisoners forced to perform the task. Some reported that wounded victims were buried alive.
The prosecution accused Rwamucyo of spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda and overseeing mass burial operations. Rwamucyo claimed his involvement was solely for “hygiene-related” reasons and denied the allegation that survivors were buried alive.
Rwamucyo was arrested in a suburb north of Paris in 2010 while working as a doctor in a northern French hospital. He was taken into custody at the funeral of Jean Bosco Baravagwiza, a key figure in the genocide who was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003.
