The trial of two Genocide suspects that started May 10, 2016 in France, will conclude end this month but the verdict pronounciation was postponed and is set for July 6, sources say. The case of Octavian Ngenzi, 58, and Tito Barahira, 64, former mayors of Kabarondo in eastern Rwanda, is being heard before Paris’ Cour d’Assises. The duo, who fled Rwanda in 1994, were mayors of the former Kabarondo Commune (now Kayonza District) between 1977 and 1994. They are accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi; and especially participating in the killings of Tutsi refugees at Kabarondo Catholic Church in April 1994. The trial – now in its seventh week – was earlier scheduled to end on July 1. According to Alain Gauthier, the president of the France-based rights group which sued them, Collectif des Parties Civiles pours le Rwanda (CPCR), a few more witnesses are yet to be heard as well as experts in psychology or psychiatry before the trial winds up. “The trial is proceeding as planned, although on some days we finished very late, beyond 23 hours, which is exhausting. We heard many witnesses,” Gauthier said on Monday. “Despite differences on the details, almost all emphasised that Ngenzi and Barahira have overwhelming responsibilities in the massacres at the Kabarondo church but also in the days before.” Now, he says, it is the jury that will decide whether the two are guilty or not. “We strongly hope that both will be sentenced for the crimes they are linked to.” Gauthier told The New Times that in the last two weeks of the trial, the two accused are expected to give more explanations. Then Gauthier, and his wife Dafroza Gauthier, will also testify before submissions of the CPCR counsel. Then there will be the closing arguments of the Advocate General and the arguments of the defense, before the floor is given to the accused. “There is still much work to be done.” In March, a new nongovernmental organisation, “Les Amis du CPCR,” (ACPCR) (Friends of CPCR) was launched in Rwanda to morally and financially support the CPCR in the duration of the “very costly” court cases against Genocide suspects in France. France, which is home to numerous Genocide fugitives, in March 2014, held its first Genocide trial – that of Pascal Simbikangwa, an intelligence chief of the regime that planned the massacre of an estimated one million people. At the conclusion of his trial, French prosecutors sought a life sentence but he was handed a 25-year prison sentence for genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity, which he appealed. The appeal hearing is set for October 25 to December 9 at the Cour d’Assises de Bobigny, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. The CPCR has so far filed 28 complaints with the investigating judges of the “pôle crimes contre l’humanité” established in January 2012 in the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of Paris. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
