A court in Paris will, on November 14, begin proceedings in a case involving the seventh Rwandan to be tried in France for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. At the Cour d’ assises de Paris, Dr. Sosthene Munyemana will be tried for allegedly being at the forefront of massacres in Tumba - a locality in current Huye town, southern Rwanda - a role that earned him the nickname butcher of Tumba”. ALSO READ: CNLG welcomes French decision to try 'Butcher of Tumba' Available information indicates that the suspect was born in 1955 in Mbare, former Commune of Musambira, in the former Gitarama prefecture. After completing studies at the National University of Rwanda, in Butare [current Huye], Munyemana specialised in gynecology at the University of Bordeaux II in France. ALSO READ: Munyemana was sentenced to life by Gacaca On his return, he worked at the University Hospital in Butare (CHUB) and also taught at the then National University of Rwanda’s faculty of medicine. During the Genocide, Munyemana resided in Gitwe cell, in Tumba Sector. His wife and three children remained in France. Munyemana was on leave from the end of March to early May 1994, when he participated in the Genocide, after which he fled to France. ALSO READ: France: Trial of Genocide suspect Hategekimana underway The Genocide charges against him were filed in 1995 by rights groups: Collectif Girondin pour le Rwanda and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). An international arrest warrant was issued by Rwanda and put under a red notice by Interpol in 2006. The suspect applied for refugee status, which was denied in 2008. In 2010, Rwanda requested France to extradite him, without success. In 2007, Gacaca courts tried him in absentia and sentenced him for 30 years in jail, for genocide crimes he committed at CHUB and in Tumba where he lived. In 2010, the Ngoma Gacaca Court, on appeal, upheld his sentence in absentia after proving his role in the planning and execution of the Genocide in the city of Butare, especially at CHUB where he killed women and children. Atrocities he committed in Tumba include the incarceration of the Tutsi in Tumba Sector’s meeting room and the selection of people to be killed. He was also charged with the distribution of guns that he was given by former Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, and the killings at Mukoni roadblock. ALSO READ: Genocide fugitive in France loses case over ‘African Nazi’ label Munyemana fled to France in 1994 and continued his medical career at Villeneuve-sur-Lot Hospital until 2009 when he was suspended. In December 2018, a French prosecutor followed up on his case but the first case against Munyemana's crimes in the genocide against the Tutsi was filed in 1995, in Bordeaux. Munyemana will be the seventh genocide suspect to be tried in France. The first genocide trial in France took place in 2014 when Pascal Simbikangwa, a former spy chief was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Besides Simbikangwa, other genocide suspects tried in France are Tito Barahira, Octavien Ngenzi, Claude Muhayimana, Laurent Bucyibaruta, and Philippe Hategekimana. ALSO READ: Where are the 1,100 Genocide fugitives? More than 40 indicted genocide fugitives are still in France.
