The French Court of Cassation on February 15, dismissed the appeal by the family of former President Juvenal Habyarimana over a long-running probe into the shooting down of his plane near Kigali International Airport on April 6, 1994.
Habyarimana’s family had petitioned France’s highest court in a last ditch attempt to revive a discredited probe by French magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière in which he implicated former officers of the Rwanda Patriotic Army in the downing of the plane.
The latest decision comes after years of a sequence of appeals and dismissals in different French jurisdictions. The latest appeal was filed by Habyarimana’s family against the decision of the Court of Appeal of Paris on July 3, 2020, to dismiss the case.
Despite different extensive investigations concluding the contrary, Bruguière had laid the blame of the attack on the RPA (the military wing of Rwanda Patriotic Font) and issued arrest warrants against the Rwandan officials.
Bruguière had begun his probe in March 1998 following a complaint submitted in by the daughter of the co-pilot of Habyarimana’s plane, Jean-Pierre Minaberry, who died in the crash.
The accused Rwandans include the senior security advisor to the President, Gen. James Kabarebe, Lt Gen Charles Kayonga, Maj Gen (rtd) Sam Kanyemera Kaka, Maj Gen (rtd) Jack Nziza, Lt Col (rtd) Rose Kanyange Kabuye, Lt Col Jacob Tumwine, and Franck Nziza.
