France court upholds life sentences for two former Rwandan mayors accused of genocide

by Abi
Jul 8, 2018

Life sentences handed to two former Rwandan mayors for their part in the Rwandan genocide were upheld by a French court on Friday.

Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira had appealed after they were found guilty of crimes of against humanity, genocide and summary executions in 2016.

"This decision is just and sends a message: no to impunity for all those who took part in the genocide and who thought they could find refuge in France," said Alain Gauthier, head of a group which has pushed for French investigations into the genocide.

The pair’s sentences are the strongest handed out for genocide by a French court, following the sentencing in 2014 of former Rwandan army captain Pascal Simbikangwa to 25 years of solitary confinement.

All three were arrested and tried in France under universal jurisdiction.

See more from AFP.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button