Claude Muhayimana trial: a first day of purely technical hearing
Claude Muhayimana (center) arriving at the Paris court, November 22, 2021. Thomas Coex AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Franco-Rwandan Claude Muhayimana has been on trial since Monday before the Paris Assize Court for "complicity" in genocide and crimes against humanity during the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
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The first day of the hearing began with the drawing of lots which made it possible to constitute the jury for this Assize Court, namely nine civilians and three magistrates.
Then, the debates opened in a very general way.
In 1994, Claude Muhayimama was an employee of a Rwandan public tourism establishment managing the Guest House hotel in Kibuye, on the shores of the immense Lake Kivu.
He is accused of "complicity" in genocide and crimes against humanity for having "knowingly helped and assisted" soldiers and militiamen by repeatedly ensuring their transport to the sites of massacres in the prefecture of Kibuye, the hills of Karongi, Gitwa and Bisesero (west), where tens of thousands of people were exterminated in appalling conditions.
► To read also: The trial of Claude Muhayimana opens in Paris
Claude Muhayimama Muhayimana, who faces life imprisonment, is a refugee in France, of which he obtained nationality in 2010. He was arrested in Rouen, where he lives, in 2014, one year after the opening of an investigation initiated by a complaint from the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), which fights against impunity and the presence in France of alleged Rwandan genocidaires.
Scarf around his neck, arms crossed, Claude Muhayimama appears free. He is not seated in the accused's box, but on a chair placed next to his lawyers, only a few meters from the lawyers for the civil parties. When the president of the court asks him to state his identity, Claude Muhayimana speaks with a confident voice. "
He is an ordinary man, a gentleman who found himself in chaos
", underlines one of his lawyers, Me Philippe Meilhac. "
He acted in conscience, he will explain himself
", continues this lawyer who describes his client as a "
tired person
".
For the civil parties, this trial is important.
"
All the links in the chain mechanism that led to the genocide are important, there are no more levels,
" insists Mr. Richard Guisagara, one of the lawyers for the civil parties.
A total of 50 witnesses are called to appear.
Only about fifteen were able to make the trip.
The others will participate by videoconference, from Rwanda, Cameroon or Malawi.
This trial is to last one month, until December 17, 2021.
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