\n A French-Rwandan former hotel driver is to go on trial in Paris from September for crimes linked to the Rwandan genocide, a judicial source told AFP on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Claude Muhayimana, previously a driver at a hotel on Lake Kivu in western Rwanda, is accused of transporting Hutu militiamen to sites where massacres were carried out.\n<\/p>\n
\n His trial -- the third in France to be connected to the genocide -- is scheduled to run from September 29 to October 23.\n<\/p>\n
\n Muhayimana faces charges of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity \"through aiding and assisting\" such acts.\n<\/p>\n
\n The massacres were carried out at a local school and in nearby hills where members of the Tutsi minority had taken refuge.\n<\/p>\n
\n Muhayimana fled to France after the genocide and obtained French nationality in 2010.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2014, he was arrested in the northern city of Rouen after a year-long investigation triggered by a complaint by the Collective of Civilian Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), which represents victims.\n<\/p>\n
\n His lawyer, Philippe Meilhac, told AFP that Muhayimana should be viewed in a \"historical context\".\n<\/p>\n
\n He is \"neither a political nor a military leader, but an ordinary citizen who was caught up in the middle of chaos\", he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I am convinced that the court will recognise his innocence.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n CPCR's president, Alain Gauthier, said: \"We are delighted that this trial is going ahead, but we look forward to seeing many others, with senior figures.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n In the two other Rwandan genocide trials that have concluded in France, a former officer in the presidential guard, Pascal Simbikangwa, was given a 25-year sentence in 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2016, Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira, two former mayors in eastern Rwanda, were given life sentences.\n<\/p>\n
\n Twenty-nine investigations into genocide suspects were underway in early December, conducted by a special judicial unit based in Paris, which is empowered by law to carry out prosecutions of any individuals on French soil.\n<\/p>\n
\n Around 800,000 people -- Tutsis but also moderate Hutus -- were slaughtered over 100 days by ethnic Hutu extremists during the 1994 genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A French-Rwandan former hotel driver is to go on trial in Paris from September for crimes linked to the Rwandan genocide, a judicial source told AFP on Monday. Claude Muhayimana, previously a driver at a hotel on Lake Kivu in western Rwanda, is accused of transporting Hutu militiamen to sites where massacres were carried out. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-43879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n