Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira: French court sentences two mayors to life for genocide

Octavien Ngenzi                                                       Tito Barahira

Trial: Paris Assize Court May 2016
Daily court report from the trial of Ngenzi and Barahira, Paris May 2016 Eng (pdf)

Appeal: Paris Criminal Court May 2018

These two former bourgmeisters (mayors) were finally brought to trial in 2016 after many years living freely in France, where they had fled after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. They were tried together and both found guilty – a verdict that was upheld on appeal in May 2018. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment for their appalling crimes – though they showed no emotion when sentenced.

Background
Octavien Ngenzi was born in 1954 and was made bourgmeister of Kabarondo commune in the eastern prefecture of Kibungo in 1986. He represented the MRND party of the president, Juvenal Habyarimana. He took over the position from Tito Barahira, who had held the office from 1977, and was at the time of the genocide in 1994 director of Electrogaz in the Kabarondo commune. Barahira, was another loyalist to MRND, where he was chairman of the ruling party in the local area.

The two men were accused, among other crimes, of assisting the organisation of the Interahamwe militia and leading them in attacking and massacring around 2,000 unarmed Tutsis who had sought refuge inside Kabarondo church on 13 April 1994.

In 2009 Rwanda issued an international arrest warrant for Ngenzi and opened an investigation into Barahira the following year. This led to the campaigning NGO the CPCR, which represents victims of the genocide, filing complaints against the men. Both were subsequently arrested – Ngenzi (2010) in Mamoudzou in the overseas French territory of Mayotte, and Barahira (2013) in Toulouse. Extradition requests were made by Rwandan authorities but were, as ever, turned down by France.

Their trial began on 10 May 2016 at the Court of Assizes in Paris. A number of civil parties took part in bringing the prosecution – FIDH, LDH, CPCR, Survie, LICRA and Association CRF. Both men were found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity in verdicts returned on 6 July.

Two years later, on 2 May 2018 an appeal was heard at the Criminal Court in Paris which confirmed the earlier verdict and sentence. On 16 October 2019 the Supreme Court finalised this decision.