April 6, 1994 was a significant day for Rwanda. The plane of then President Juvenal Habyarimana returning from Tanzania was shot down by surface-to-air missiles at the airport of the capital Kigali. All on board were killed. It is still unclear who was behind the attack. However, the incident is seen as the trigger for a genocide that lasted three months, and it is estimated that up to one million people lost their lives. President Habyarimana belonged to the Hutu majority which accuses the Tutsi minority of carrying out the assassination.

In France now, a doctor is on trial from Tuesday in Paris, accused of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. This is the seventh Rwandan genocide trial in France. The 68-year-old doctor Sosten Mouniemana is said to have signed an open letter of support for the then interim government that had systematically organized the genocide and participated in crimes. However, Jean-Yves Duppe’s lawyer rejects all the accusations.

“My client believed that the interim government could act as a bulwark in the threatened civil war,” he tells DW. In addition, he adds that the current government of Rwanda is pressuring witnesses to testify against Sosten Munyemanas because he could become the leader of the opposition.

Arguments that have been heard often

“The NGO Human Rights Watch stated in its latest report that the current government is doing everything it can to kill members of the opposition abroad, literally and figuratively,” the defendant’s lawyer emphasizes.

But Justice Orelia DeVos says she’s heard that argument too often. “All the defendants before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, which closed in 2015, made this argument,” he said, speaking to DW.

According to Dr Nicola Palmer at King’s College London there are 120 trials pending in 20 countries over the Rwandan genocide and 32 of them are in France. For the legal profession, it is important not to forget the issue, just like for Roger Coute, professor of International Law in Lyon and head of the Unesco research laboratory “Memory, culture and interculturality”.

“In our department we are working to ensure that the genocide in Rwanda is not forgotten because there is a real risk of further genocides in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Trials like the one in Paris could prevent further genocides, because genocide is a crime against humanity and affects all humanity. The perpetrators should not feel safe anywhere,” he emphasizes.

The decision is expected to be issued on December 19.