The Paris Assize Court was merciless on Wednesday in sentencing former Rwandan gendarme, Philippe Hategekimana, 66, naturalised French under the name Philippe Manier, to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda in the spring of 1994.
The court followed the prosecution’s instructions to the letter and found Mr Manier guilty of “virtually all the charges” against him.
There is no statute of limitations for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The former chief warrant officer of the Nyanza gendarmerie (southern Rwanda), standing in his box, leaning on a cane, remained impassive as the verdict was announced, while outside the courtroom, Rwandans, civil parties in the trial, burst into song and dance.
A naturalised French citizen since 2005, Mr Manier, who acknowledges the reality of the genocide but denies any involvement in its implementation, was prosecuted for participation in a criminal conspiracy to prepare the crimes of genocide and other crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against humanity.
He was accused of participating in or encouraging the murder of dozens of Tutsis in the Butare prefecture (southern Rwanda), including the mayor of Ntyazo who resisted the implementation of genocide in his commune.
According to the prosecution, he ordered and supervised the erection of several roadblocks “intended to control and kill Tutsi civilians”.
The prosecution also accused Mr Manier of having participated, by giving orders or even by being directly involved in the field, in three massacres: that of Nyabubare hill, where 300 people were killed on April 23, 1994; that, four days later, of Nyamure hill, where thousands of Tutsis had taken refuge; and that of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of Rwanda, where tens of thousands of victims were recorded.
–africanews.com
