Paris Appeals Court Orders Resumed Investigation Into Agathe Habyarimana in Connection With 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Investigating judges of the Paris Appeals Court overturned the dismissal of Agathe Habyarimana's case on May 6, 2026, and ordered the investigation into her for complicity in the 1994 genocide to resume. The dismissal had been ordered on August 21, 2025. Le Monde reported that the decision restarts a prosecution that has lasted 19 years against the former first lady of Rwanda.

Agathe Habyarimana, widow of Rwanda's former president Juvénal Habyarimana, is a resident of France. Juvénal Habyarimana was killed on April 6, 1994, when his plane was shot down. The shooting down of the plane triggered the genocide.

The Tutsi genocide left between 800,000 and one million dead between April and July 1994. Le Monde reported that an unpublished, handwritten letter dated June 24, 1994, from Rwandan officer Charles Uwihoreye to René Galinié mentions Agathe Habyarimana by name. René Galinié was France's defense attaché in Kigali from 1988 to 1991.

The first page of the June 24, 1994 letter written by Charles Uwihoreye to René Galinié has been published by Le Monde. The document, which has never been submitted to the courts, cannot alone prove the role played by Agathe Habyarimana. It adds to a body of suspicions surrounding the widow of President Juvénal Habyarimana.

As the French investigation into Agathe Habyarimana for complicity in the 1994 genocide resumes, the letter stands as key evidence that had not previously reached judicial review. Le Monde reported the full context of the correspondence between the Rwandan officer and the former French defense attaché. The Paris court's reversal returns the case to active status after nearly a year of closure.