The appeal trial of Eugène Rwamucyo, a former doctor convicted in France for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, is set to begin on June 9 before the Paris Assize Court of Appeal (Cour d’assises d’appel de Paris).
Rwamucyo filed an appeal against a 2024 lower court judgment that sentenced him to 27 years in prison. The Paris Assize Court found him guilty of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
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During his first-instance trial in 2024, numerous witnesses testified about atrocities committed in the former Butare Prefecture, now part of Rwanda's Southern Province.
Born in 1959 in Northern Province, Rwamucyo trained as a physician specialising in occupational medicine, environmental and industrial hygiene, and toxicology.
Before and during the genocide, he served as director of the Centre Universitaire de Santé Publique (CUSP) in Butare and lectured at the former National University of Rwanda.
According to court records and witness testimonies, Rwamucyo attended meetings where massacres were planned in Butare. He was also accused of overseeing the burial of Tutsi victims and ordering that wounded survivors be buried or burned.
In September 2009, a gacaca court in Huye convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in organising and facilitating genocidal killings.
Following the genocide, Rwamucyo fled Rwanda and later sought refugee status in Côte d'Ivoire through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but his application was rejected.
He subsequently worked in several medical positions in France and, in 2008, secured employment at a hospital in Maubeuge. However, in October 2009, he was suspended after allegations regarding his role in the genocide emerged.
Rwanda issued an international arrest warrant against him through Interpol in 2007. Around the same period, the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a French organization pursuing justice for genocide victims, filed a complaint that led French authorities to open a judicial investigation.
On May 26, 2010, Rwamucyo was arrested in Sannois, near Paris, while attending the funeral of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a former senior official convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for genocide-related crimes.
Although Rwanda sought his extradition, the Versailles Court of Appeal rejected the request, and he was released from pre-trial detention on September 15, 2010.
French authorities later pursued domestic prosecution. In 2013, he was formally placed under investigation for genocide-related crimes. In 2020, investigating judges ordered that he stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, a decision subsequently upheld by the investigation chamber in 2022.
Part of France's continuing genocide prosecutions
Rwamucyo's appeal is the second of three genocide-related trials scheduled in France in 2026.
Earlier this year, the appeal of Claude Muhayimana concluded with the court upholding his 14-year prison sentence.
The third case is expected to be the first-instance trial of Safari Madjaliwa, scheduled from November 17 to December 18 this year.