Paris, 10 November 2025. Sosthène Munyemana was convicted of genocide for acts constituting attacks on life and for conspiracy to commit genocide while he was working as a gynaecologist in the prefecture of Butare in south-western Rwanda. The appellate court upheld the lower court’s conviction.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), acting as parties to the case, and the FIDH member organisation in Rwanda, the Association rwandaise pour la défense des droits de la personne et des libertés publiques (ADL), deplore the appeals court’s decision to acquit the accused of almost all other charges. In their decision, the judges emphasised that the acts took place a long time ago, the lack of material evidence, and the impossibility of conducting technical investigations to rule out the charges.
In December 2023, Sosthène Munyemana received the same sentence but the Criminal Court maintained the other charges, namely, that of being the perpetrator of genocide by serious attacks on physical or mental integrity and of crimes against humanity, specifically acts of torture or inhuman treatment. Munyemana was also found guilty of being an accomplice to crimes against humanity, namely summary executions and the abduction of persons who subsequently were disappeared. He had been acquitted by the criminal court of conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity, the acquittal was upheld on appeal.
The decision of the criminal court emphasised that Munyemana was fully involved in the regime’s genocidal policy, in which he had participated by using the influence and prominence provided by his position as a doctor.
Sosthène Munyemana challenged the 24-year sentence handed down by the Appeals Court of the Assize Court before France’s highest court, the Cour de cassation.
Munyemana arrived in France in 1994, shortly after the genocide, and worked as an emergency doctor for more than 20 years before being arrested in 2010. A complaint had been filed against him in 1995.
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The appeals court handed down their decision almost 30 years after the genocide. The proceedings had been initiated on the basis of the principle of universal jurisdiction in France. Such prosecutions are essential, but remain particularly slow for the victims. In 2004, in the case involving Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, France was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the tardiness of the investigations. In the case concerning French soldiers’ failure to take action in Rwanda during Operation Turquoise, the FIDH and the LDH acting as the civil parties dont la FIDH et la Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), la Cour de Paris a confirmé appealed the court’s decision for dismissal, but in December 2024 the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
The FIDH and the LDH are parties to 14 court cases involving genocide.. Since 2014, they have prevailed in several of the cases. In addition to Munyemana, French courts also sentenced Pascal Simbikangwa to a 25-year prison term for genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity. Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahirwa, both former mayors of Kabarondo, received a life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, the former prefect of Gikongoro, was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. He died in December 2023, before his appeal trial.