France drops genocide, torture case dropped Rwanda priest

French judges have dropped the case against Rwandan priest Wenceslas Munyeshyaka for his alleged role in the country’s 1994 genocide, a judicial source said Tuesday.

Munyeshyaka was accused of handing over Tutsi civilians to Hutu militias and encouraging rapes, but French judges followed the advice of prosecutors in August that there was not enough evidence to proceed.

The decision can still be appealed by civil parties to the case.

Munyeshyaka had a reputation in Rwanda for carrying a gun and wearing a bulletproof vest when he moved around the capital, Kigali.

But he has protested his innocence and says he fled Rwanda because the Hutu militias accused him of protecting the Tutsi.

The 57-year-old priest moved to France after the genocide and today administers to a parish in the town of Gisors in northern France.

AFP

UM– USEKE.RW