Sosthene Munyemana, a former gynecologist, was sentenced to 24 years in jail by a court in France for crimes he committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
The trial of Sosthene Munyemana, 68, ended Tuesday, resulting in the Paris criminal court convicting him of genocide, crimes against humanity, and conspiring to commit a crime, broadcaster France 24 said.
Throughout the court proceedings, Munyemana denied accusations that he used an office in southern Rwanda to hold a group of ethnic Tutsis who were later taken to other places and executed.
Munyemana held that he intended to save the Tutsis and that he was keeping them in the office as a refuge. He claimed that he was not aware that the Tutsis would be killed at the place they were taken and admitted that he may have been deceived.
Ibuka, Genocide Survivors Association, says that even though justice was given to Dr. Sosthene Munyemana, who was convicted of genocide crimes, they were not satisfied with the punishment he received saying that his crimes deserved a longer jail term.
The public prosecutor had sought a sentence of 30 years, arguing that the “total” of his choices showed “the traits of a genocidal."
A married father of three, Munyemana settled in 1994 in southeastern France, where he started practicing as a medical doctor before recently retiring, according to France 24.
This was the same year as the Rwandan genocide, which led to the demise of more than 1 million people in targeted killings of the minority Tutsi ethnic group by Hutu extremists. It erupted after the death of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira in a plane crash on April 6, 1994.
Munyemana was close to Jean Kambanda, the head of the interim government established after the plane carrying then-president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down by a missile in 1994.
France has been one of the top destinations for those implicated in the genocide fleeing justice at home. Rwanda has often accused Paris of being unwilling to extradite genocide suspects or bring them to justice.
Since 2014, France has tried and convicted six figures including a former spy chief, two ex-mayors, and a former hotel chauffeur.
According to data shared by the National Prosecution Authority, 1,094 fugitives indicted for genocide crimes are hiding abroad as e orts to bring them back into the country to face justice prove futile.
Today, up to 1,148 genocide fugitives have been indicted since the process began, among them, 25 have been prosecuted in other countries, while 29 have been extradited and deported to Rwanda for trial.