French judges have dropped a long-running investigation into the shooting down of a plane carrying the former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana.
His death in 1994 was a trigger of the genocide. The incident was blamed on Tutsi rebels led by President Paul Kagame. His relatives were also under arrest. The charges were dropped on December 21 in 2018.
Habyarimana – a Hutu who had signed a peace deal with Tutsi rebels – was flying into the capital, Kigali, with his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira when a missile brought the plane down, killing all on board. France then chose to support the Hutus and chose to tie Tutsis in the incident, provoking enmity between the tribes. The Rwandan government described the enquiry as a politically motivated and accused France – which had supported the previous Hutu regime – of continuing to support those who had carried out the genocide.
Relations between the two countries later improved. Lawyers for Habyarimana’s widow, Agathe, have told the AFP news agency the plaintiffs in the case would appeal against the decision. In 2012, a report by the French judge who succeeded Mr Bruguière cast doubt on the idea that the rebels had shot down the plane, and suggested that Hutu extremists were likely to have been responsible.