By Enyichukwu Enemanna
France’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered that investigations should resume against Rwanda’s former first lady for her alleged “complicity in genocide”.
This overturns a 2025 ruling of the lower court which dismissed charges that Agathe Habyarimana had played a role in the 1994 genocide.
The court held that there were “insufficient evidence” against her.
Habyarimana, who is in her late 80s has lived in France since her evacuation by French paratroopers in the early days of the dastardly killings.
It was triggered by the assassination of her husband, the former President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana of the Hutu ethnic community.
Violence, over a period of a 100 days, saw, between 800,000 and a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus brutally killed, mainly by Hutus.
The ex-first lady has been under probe since 2008, with investigators alleging that she headed the “Akazu” or inner circle of Hutu power.
They accused her of playing an active role in planning and executing the massacres, drawing up lists of names of those to be eliminated.
Her lawyer has described the decision to re-open the case as “incomprehensible” saying there was no evidence to seriously support these claims.
