• Naturalized French in 2005, Philippe Manier, alias Philippe Hategekimana, is suspected of having participated in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.
  • The man had retrained as a security guard and worked for the University of Rennes-2.
  • In 1994, about 800,000 people were killed in this country during the genocide according to UN figures.

He was naturalized French in 2005, under a new name: Philippe Manier. Arriving in France in 1999 to flee Rwanda in the grip of a genocide against the Tutsis, Philippe Hategekimana has long led a peaceful life in France. After obtaining refugee status by declaring a false identity, the man had settled in the region of Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) where he worked as a security guard at the University of Rennes-2. Nearly twenty-five years after leaving his native country, the former Rwandan gendarme will have to explain his past. From Wednesday, he will appear before the Paris Assize Court for "genocide, crimes against humanity and participation in a cartel" for the preparation of these crimes. The genocide in Rwanda caused more than 800,000 deaths according to the UN, mainly Tutsis exterminated between April and July 1994.



Former chief warrant officer at the gendarmerie of Nyanza, in the prefecture of Butare (southern Rwanda), Philippe Hategekimana, 66, is suspected of the murders of dozens of Tutsis including the mayor of Ntyazo, Narcisse Nyagasaka, who resisted the execution of the genocide in his commune. According to the prosecution, Philippe Manier, who disputes the facts, is also suspected of having ordered the erection of roadblocks "intended to control and murder Tutsi civilians".

Multiple accusations against him

He is also accused of the "attack and massacre" of 300 Tutsi civilians who took refuge on Nyamugari hill, the murder of a nun, "Maman Augustine", as well as his role in the attack on hundreds of Tutsi civilians who had taken refuge on Nyabubare hill. About a thousand civilians were killed in the attack.

Forty civil parties, including the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) and survivors or relatives of victims, have been formed in this case. Philippe Hategekimana had left the France for Cameroon in November 2017, a few months before his arrest, raising fears of investigators of an "organized leak" while the press had reported a complaint filed against him by the CPCR. Arrested in 2018, he was placed in pre-trial detention. The trial is scheduled until June 30.

Prior to this trial, four cases related to the genocide in Rwanda were prosecuted in France, two of which are finally tried.

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