Pascal Simbikangwa is the former spy chief of

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. Simbikangwa was an active propagandist during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and was found guilty of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

Career and genocide

Simbikangwa, born in Karago in 1959, became disabled in 1986 following a car accident. He became head of Rwanda's Central Intelligence Agency. Simbikangwa was also captain of the presidential guard while he was the chief of intelligence. He remained in these positions through the genocide, fleeing Rwanda in the late summer of 1994. Simbikangwa first fled to the

Comoros Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros (Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwe ...

. In 2008, he filed for political asylum in Mayotte. He was arrested on 28 October 2008 for falsification of papers. He was tried in France under a French law that allows anyone accused of crimes against humanity to be extradited there.

2014 trial

During his 2014 trial in France, Simbikangwa was described as a close friend and distant cousin of Juvénal Habyarimana, whose assassination sparked ethnic tensions in Rwanda. Prosecutors showed that Simbikangwa was the a top shareholder in Free Radio-Television des Milles Collines, one of the main Hutu propaganda arms, which called openly for genocide. Simbikangwa was accused and found guilty of creating lists of Tutsi and moderate-Hutu leaders who would be targeted for genocide. Simbikangwa was found guilty on 14 March 2014 of " complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity." He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simbikangwa, Pascal 1959 births Living people Rwandan spies Rwandan people convicted of genocide Rwandan people convicted of crimes against humanity Rwandan people imprisoned abroad Rwandan expatriates in France Prisoners and detainees of France