A 58-year-old Rwandan living in France was indicted in early July in Paris, in particular for crimes against humanity, suspected of having participated in the executions of Tutsi civilians during the 1994 genocide, which he disputes .
Madjaliwa Safari, domiciled near Tours, “firmly disputes all of the facts with which he is accused”, reacted to AFP his lawyer, Me Abed Bendjador, who expects this “judicial information that it will allow to rebalance the contradictory, to explain his situation”.
A 2017 arrest warrant
Madjaliwa Safari has been indicted by an investigating judge from the crimes against humanity division of the Paris judicial court for genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity of these two leaders, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday. , confirming information from the regional newspaper La Nouvelle RĂ©publique. He was remanded in custody on Friday.
At this stage, he is indicted for the period from April 6 to July 1994 and for acts committed in particular in the current Rwandan province of the South, in particular in the former prefectures of Gitarama and Butare, according to this source.
Madjaliwa Safari is said to have played a special role at a roadblock called “Chez Premier”. Some witnesses describe his leadership role and his active participation in the arrests and executions of civilians on this “fence”. Rwanda had issued an international arrest warrant against him in 2017 and a judicial investigation had been opened in Paris on November 19, 2019. The investigations are being carried out by the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity (OCLCH).
“Quickly located”
According to a source close to the case, he obtained a residence permit with refugee status from France in 2017 and was located by French investigators “quite quickly” after the opening of the judicial investigation. He lives under his true identity and presents himself as a trader, a profession he also exercised in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, according to this source. “It’s a procedure that started several years ago, in Rwanda and in France. He had never been heard”, underlined Me Bendjador.
