An ex-prefect of Rwanda, suspected of participating in the 1994 genocide in the country, has been charged and imprisoned in Paris, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), who learned about it on Saturday from a source close to the case. His name is Pierre Kayondo. He had been under investigation in France since late 2021 following a complaint by a group of victims and was suspected of living in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) in the northwest of the country. According to a judicial source, he has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, complicity in crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit these crimes.
According to another source close to the case, he was arrested on Tuesday by gendarmes from the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), based on a warrant issued by the investigating judge.
He was brought before the investigating judge on the same day and indicted. Pierre Kayondo was then placed in custody.
This Rwandan politician was the subject of a complaint with the filing of a civil action by the Collectif des parties civiles du Rwanda (CPCR) in September 2021, which led to the prompt opening of a judicial investigation.
In its complaint, the CPCR claimed that Pierre Kayondo, “former prefect of Kibuye and former deputy” in the prefecture of Gitarama, had “actively participated in the organization of exterminations in Ruhango and Tambwe in the prefecture of Gitarama by allowing the formation of interahamwe militia groups, providing weapons, and participating in meetings.”
According to Alain Gauthier, the emblematic president of the CPCR, Pierre Kayondo, who he estimates to be around 70 years old, “was close to personalities convicted of genocide,” including Colonel Aloys Simba and Ephrem Nkezabera, known as the “banker of the genocide.”
When interviewed by AFP on Saturday, Alain Gauthier and his wife Dafroza, who co-founded the CPCR, expressed their satisfaction that their “complaint led to an investigation being opened and that justice took an interest in Pierre Kayondo. This is good.”
The genocide claimed over 800,000 lives according to the UN, mainly Tutsis who were exterminated between April and July 1994.
