Appeal Trial of Sosthène MUNYEMANA

The appeal trial of Dr. Sosthène MUNYEMANA has been on-going since September 2025 and will be concluded on October 23 at the Paris Assize Court. MUNYEMANA had been sentenced to 24 years in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit these crimes in a first trial in 2023 that ran from November 13 to December 19.

It took 28 years to reach that point. Dr. Sosthène MUNYEMANA, an emergency doctor at the Villeneuve-sur-Lot hospital for many years, MUNYEMANA had been the object of a case filed by several associations (Survie, IDHR, CRF – French Rwandese Community) since October 15, 1995, with the CPCR joining the case as a civil plaintiff after its creation in 2001.

In April 2007, the Paris public prosecutor’s office requested that he be placed under formal investigation, which only happened in December 2011. Placed under judicial supervision in January 2010, the extradition request by the Rwandan authorities was rejected by the Bordeaux Court of Appeal, who also consequently lifted his judicial supervision.

It was only in March 2017 that the judicial investigation was closed and awaited the Public Prosecutor’s final submission. In May 2018, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that Dr. Sosthène MUNYEMANA be referred to the Assize Court. In December of the same year, the investigating judge handling the case issued an “order of partial dismissal, reclassification, and indictment for certain charges” to the Paris Assize Court. Sosthène MUNYEMANA appealed, but his appeal was rejected in December 2021. The accused filed an further appeal with the Court of Cassation, which was dismissed on March 23, 2022.

Thus ends a judicial saga that has lasted far too long.

Alain GAUTHIER, Chairperson of the CPCR

Updated by Jacques BIGOT on September 11, 2025

Translated by Bruce CLARKE, CPCR