French prosecutors have requested the Paris Assize Court of Appeal to sentence Dr. Eugène Rwamucyo to 30 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The request was made on Wednesday, July 15 as the appeal trial entered its final stage. Following the prosecution's submissions, Rwamucyo and his defence team are expected to present their final arguments before the court takes its decision. The verdict is expected during the night of July 16-17. ALSO READ: Rwamucyo to 27 years over Genocide crimes Rwamucyo is back in court after appealing a judgment delivered in October 2024, in which a lower court found him guilty of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 27 years in prison. He argued that he played no role in the crimes committed in the former Butare Prefecture. His appeal trial opened on June 9 before the Paris Assize Court of Appeal (Cour d'assises d'appel de Paris). During the trial, survivors and other witnesses testified about atrocities committed in the former Butare Prefecture, now part of Southern Province. Prosecutors argued that evidence demonstrated Rwamucyo's involvement in planning and facilitating the killings. According to court records and witness testimony, he attended meetings where massacres were planned in Butare. He is also accused of supervising the burial of Tutsi victims and ordering that wounded survivors be buried alive 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. After the genocide, Rwamucyo fled Rwanda and later sought refugee status in Côte d'Ivoire through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). His application was rejected. He later held several medical positions in France and, in 2008, was employed at a hospital in Maubeuge. However, he was suspended in October 2009 after allegations about his role in the genocide became public. Rwanda had issued an Interpol Red Notice against him in 2007. Around the same period, the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a French organisation dedicated to pursuing justice for genocide victims, filed a complaint that prompted French authorities to open a judicial investigation. In May 2010, French police arrested Rwamucyo in Sannois, near Paris, while he was attending the funeral of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a former senior official convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of genocide-related crimes. Although Rwanda requested his extradition, the Versailles Court of Appeal rejected the request, leading to his release from pre-trial detention in September 2010. French authorities subsequently opted to prosecute him domestically. In 2013, he was formally placed under judicial investigation for genocide-related offences. In 2020, investigating judges ordered that he stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, a decision upheld by the investigation chamber in 2022. Rwamucyo's appeal is the second of three genocide-related cases scheduled to be heard in France this year. Earlier in 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the 14-year prison sentence imposed on Claude Muhayimana for his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The third case is the first-instance trial of Safari Madjaliwa, scheduled to run from November 17 to December 18 this year.
