The trial of a former doctor accused of genocide in Rwanda began this week, three decades after the massacre of the African country's Tutsi population by the Hutu majority.
Eugene Rwamucyo, 65, is accused of aiding his country's authorities in disseminating anti-Tutsi propaganda and of participating in mass murder in an attempt to destroy evidence of genocide. Rwamucyo, who practiced medicine in France and Belgium after leaving his country, has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, complicity in crimes against humanity, and conspiring to prepare those crimes. If found guilty he could face life in prison.
Rwamucyo's trial is the eighth in France relating to the genocide in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 people – mostly ethnic Tutsis – were slaughtered.
Rwamucyo, who grew up in a Hutu family, was approached by anti-Tutsi militants in the late 1980s after his return from studying in Russia, according to prosecutors, who accuse him of then spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda. While teaching at university, he also participated in the execution of wounded patients and helped bury them in mass graves "in a final effort to destroy evidence of genocide," the prosecution said, quoting witness statements.
Around 60 witnesses are expected to testify during the trial, which is scheduled to run until October 29.
Read more here.
