A French court was Wednesday to issue its verdict in the trial of a former doctor accused of genocide in Rwanda, with the defendant risking up to 30 years imprisonment in the latest trial in France over the massacre of the African country's Tutsi population by the Hutu majority three decades ago.
Eugene Rwamucyo, 65, is accused of aiding his country's then authorities to disseminate anti-Tutsi propaganda and of participating in mass murder by attempting to destroy evidence of genocide.
Rwamucyo's trial is the eighth in France relating to the genocide in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 people -- mostly ethnic Tutsis -- were slaughtered.
The former doctor, who practised medicine in France and Belgium after leaving his country, has been charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, complicity in crimes against humanity and conspiring to prepare those crimes.
Prosecutors have demanded he serve 30 years in jail but in his final statement ahead of the verdict Rwamucyo, who is not currently held in custody, insisted he is innocent.
"I assure you that I did not order the killing of survivors or allow survivors to be killed," Rwamucyo said.
"I understand the suffering of those who are still looking for their loved ones... but I cannot help them," he added.
- 'One can kill with words' -
Prosecuting lawyer Nicolas Peron has said Rwamucyo should be acquitted on the charge of crimes against humanity, saying there was no evidence to show Rwamucyo himself committed summary executions or acts of torture.
But he said in his closing statement the accused should not "escape his responsibilities" as "one can kill with words".
The verdict is expected later in the day.
Rwamucyo, who grew up in a Hutu family, was approached by anti-Tutsi militants in the late 1980s after his return from studying in Russia, according to prosecutors, who accuse him of then spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda.
While teaching at university, he also participated in the execution of wounded patients and helped bury them in mass graves "in a final effort to destroy evidence of genocide", the prosecution said, quoting witness statements.
His lawyers say Rwamucyo denies any wrongdoing and argues the accusation is based on his opposition to the current Rwandan government.
His participation in the burial of bodies in mass graves was motivated by the wish to avoid a "health crisis" that would have occurred if they had been left out in the open, the lawyers said.
Following an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda, Rwamucyo was detained in May 2010 by French police following a tip-off by his colleagues in the Maubeuge hospital in northern France, where he was working at the time.
"He was openly anti-Tutsi and publicly expressed his support for the genocidal government," said Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer for LDH and FIDH, two human rights organisations who are among the plaintiffs.
In December 2023, a French court sentenced another former doctor, Sosthene Munyemana, to 24 years in prison for his involvement in the 1994 genocide.