Verdict in landmark Rwanda genocide trial due in Paris
(AFP) - 5 hours ago Paris -- A French court is due to deliver its
much-anticipated verdict in the landmark trial of a Rwandan army
captain accused of complicity in genocide on Friday, just weeks ahead
of the 20th anniversary of the 1994 atrocity.
Prosecutors in the trial -- the first of its kind in France -- have
asked for life imprisonment for Pascal Simbikangwa, branding him an
ethnic "cleanser" who was "radically committed" to his work and a "man
capable of the worst".
The defence have requested the 54-year-old be acquitted, saying the
trial is politically motivated and describing witnesses as unreliable
and guided by spite, indoctrination or fear.
The defendant himself, who denies all charges against him, is due to
take the stand Friday morning after which the jury will have to pass a
verdict on events that took place two decades ago in a small African
country some 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) away.
The trial is being closely watched in France, which has long been
accused of failing to rein in the Rwandan regime at the time of the
genocide between April and July 1994 that left 800,000 dead.
And in a rare case for France, it is being filmed, with recordings due
to be available once the case is concluded.
Simbikangwa, who is in a wheelchair after a 1986 car accident left him
paraplegic, is accused of inciting, organising and aiding massacres
during the genocide, particularly by supplying arms and instructions
to Hutu militia who were manning road blocks and killing Tutsi men,
women and children.
He was arrested in 2008 on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte,
after which Paris refused to extradite him to Rwanda as it has done in
previous cases, and decided to try him under laws that allow French
courts to consider cases of genocide.
Over the past six weeks of trial Simbikangwa has systematically
minimised his role and his understanding of the massacres that were
committed in 1994.
To general amazement, he said on the third day of trial that he had
never seen a single corpse during the genocide, unleashed mainly on
the minority Tutsi community after Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana
was assassinated on April 6, 1994.
Pressed on the subject, he responded that his disability forced him to
"lie down a bit" when he went out in cars.
Lawyers for the former army captain have sought to discredit
witnesses, saying some have been coerced or that they are prisoners
hoping to win shorter sentences.
They have also said that they did not have the means to properly
defend Simbikangwa and had not even been able to visit Rwanda to
verify prosecution evidence.
For their part, witnesses have painted a picture of a man who was
closely involved in the genocide -- playing a lead role in checkpoints
that identified Tutsis, stockpiling weapons at his home and
distributing them.
Prosecutor Bruno Sturlese has asked the jury to declare him guilty of
genocide, and not only of complicity. The jury is expected to pass its
verdict later on Friday.
Copyright (c) 2014 AFP. All rights reserved.
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--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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