According to the Agency, the former driver for a Guest House in Kibuye, who has appealed his conviction, was referred to the investigative division of the Paris Court of Appeal, which ruled on 30th November that the extension of his pre-trial detention did not appear to be “essential either for the needs of the proceedings pending the hearing, or as a security measure”.
Muhayimana was released from detention on 21st December and placed under judicial supervision pending his appeal.
“I find this decision wise and particularly justified, since we have no idea when the appeal will be held,” said his lawyer Philippe Meilhac, stressing that his client had “remained free during most of the investigation, without ever posing a problem.
Muhayimana who became a naturalised French citizen in 2010, is accused of having transported gendarmes and Interahamwe militiamen, the armed wing of the Hutu genocidal regime, to the sites of massacres of Tutsis between April and July 1994 in Kibuye and the surrounding hills, where tens of thousands of people were killed.
In December 2021, he was found guilty by a majority of votes of complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity in the hills of Karongi, Gitwa and Bisesero over the period from 7 April to the end of June 1994, and of complicity in crimes against humanity in July in the hills of Bisesero.
Muhayimana is released at a time when Genocide survivors in Karongi have been expressing dissatisfaction with the sentence handed to him.
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