Genocide in Rwanda: former prefect indicted in Paris and imprisoned

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Pierre Kayondo, a former Rwandan prefect suspected of having participated in the 1994 genocide in the country, has been indicted in Paris and imprisoned, AFP learned on Saturday.

Kayondo was the subject of an investigation in France from the end of 2021 after a complaint from a collective of victims.

According to a judicial source, he was indicted for genocide as well as complicity in genocide, complicity in crimes against humanity and conspiracy to commit those crimes.

According to another source close to the case, he was arrested on Tuesday by gendarmes from the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH), after a warrant was given by the investigating judge.

Later that day, he was presented to the judge, who indicted him. Kayondo was then remanded in custody.

The Rwandan former politician was the target of a complaint raised by the Collective of Civil Parties of Rwanda (CPCR) filed in September 2021, which gave rise to the rapid opening of a judicial investigation.

In its complaint, the CPCR affirmed that Kayondo, "former prefect of Kibuye and former deputy" in Gitarama prefecture, had "actively participated in the organisation of the exterminations in Ruhango and Tambwe in Gitarama prefecture by allowing the constitution of Interahamwe militia groups, by providing weapons and participating in meetings".

For Alain Gauthier - the emblematic president of the CPCR - Kayondo "was close to personalities convicted of genocide", including Colonel Aloys Simba and Ephrem Nkezabera, infamously nicknamed as the "genocide banker".

Speaking to AFP on Saturday, Alain Gauthier and his wife Dafroza, who co-founded the CPCR, were pleased that their "complaint was followed by the opening of an investigation and that justice was interested in Mr. Kayondo”.

The Rwandan genocide left more than 800,000 dead - mainly members of the Tutsi ethnic group who were killed between April and July 1994.