Former Rwandan Police Officer Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in France for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.
A former Rwandan police officer, Philippe Hategekimana, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in France. The conviction comes in relation to his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which Hutu militias carried out mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Prosecutors argued that Hategekimana played a significant role in the genocide, not only directly participating in the killings but also encouraging and influencing others to commit acts of violence.
After the genocide, Hategekimana fled to France from his post as a senior gendarme in Nyanza, a town in southern Rwanda. He obtained refugee status and French nationality using the name Philippe Manier.
Hategekimana worked as a university security guard in France before fleeing to Cameroon in 2017 upon learning that a complaint had been filed against him. He was subsequently arrested in Yaoundé and extradited to France the following year to face trial.
This trial marks the fifth in France involving an alleged participant in the Rwandan genocide. The genocide, which lasted 100 days and resulted in the deaths of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, remains one of the darkest chapters in Rwanda’s history.
