Rwandan genocidaire Aloys Ntiwiragabo files complaint after being compared to a Nazi

This Thursday, a journalist is on trial for having compared the Rwandan genocidaire Aloys Ntiwiragabo, wanted by Interpol for his role in the 1994 genocide, to a “Nazi”.

“An African Nazi in France? Anyone going to react? It is, in part, because of these words that a French journalist, Maria Malagardis, must respond to justice. This Thursday, January 19, the great reporter of the newspaper Liberation, which published "On the trail of the Rwandan killers" is attacked in the Paris Criminal Court for public insult against Aloys Ntiwiragabo. The journalist's tweet followed an investigation by Mediapart.

An African Nazi in France? Anyone going to react? @EmmanuelMacron @justice_gouv #Rwanda #Genocide and well done @TheoEnglebert_ https://t.co/kyPu1gvpTO

— Maria Malagardis (@mariamalagardis) July 24th, 2020

In July 2020, the French investigative newspaper published an investigation devoted to Aloys Ntiwiragabo, former head of military intelligence in Rwanda and considered one of the spearheads of the genocide of the Tutsis. Mediapart then revealed that the man, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), was hiding in France, when he had not been found for twenty years. The reaction of the journalist concerned the preliminary investigation for "crimes against humanity", which had launched the French justice against the former Rwandan soldier.

Rwandan genocide: the difficult work of journalists

Irony of fate: the one who should have been in the courtrooms to answer for his actions himself filed a complaint against the journalist, but also against Théo Englebert, at the origin of the investigation in Mediapart.

"These summonses are launched to intimidate journalists, and to hinder the work of those who investigate the Rwandan genocide", deplores the French Union of Journalists.

Investigation into those responsible for the Rwandan genocide: the SNJ supports @mariamalgardis pursued in a SLAPP procedure intended to intimidate all #journalists who investigate the subject
😠😠😠 https://t.co/wjgR1dL18B pic.twitter.com/KGMreFx99b

– SNJ – first union of journalists (@SNJ_national) -

In addition to his role in the Rwandan genocide, Aloys Ntiwiragabo is also accused of having set up an army, which still acts today in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “He is wanted by Rwanda and Interpol,” recalls the NGO Survie. A Interpol notice is indeed available on the website of the International Criminal Police Organization.

The 75-year-old man is accused of "crimes of genocide" and "extermination". The 1994 genocide in Rwanda is said to have claimed at least 800 lives, the majority of them Tutsis.