An appeals court in France has ordered the release of two Rwandan men suspected of complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former Rwandan civil servant, were detained in France on July 20 after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued arrest warrants for the two men. The French court ruled that the arrests were improperly processed and ordered their immediate release. They remain under judicial control in France, however, Rwandan officials have stated that “to release such suspects accused of the biggest crimes like genocide is absurd.”
Father Munyeshyaka, 49, is charged with acts of genocide and rape. He stands accused of the murder of three Tutsis in his parish in Kigali as well as the rape of four woman. The priest was sentenced in absentia last year by a military tribunal for complicity in genocide and rape. Mr. Munyeshyaka is accused of “direct and public incitement to commit genocide.”
Rwandan officials see the action as politically motivated. France and Rwanda have halted diplomatic negotiations after French officials accused Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, of the death of his predecessor. The Kagame government, in return, accuses France of training the militia leaders responsible for the massacres in Rwanda and for supporting the political leaders who incited the atrocities.
Kagame's predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994 – an event seen as sparking the genocide in Rwanda. Over the next 100 days, over 500,000 ethnic Tutsis were massacred by radical Hutus. The genocide halted after Tutsi rebels associated with Paul Kagame defeated the Hutu extremists in July 1994.
