A French court has postponed its ruling on whether to dismiss allegations of genocide against Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwanda’s former president, and finally end 18 years of investigation. A decision is now expected on 6 May.
French courts are weighing accusations that Habyarimana was part of the Hutu inner circle that planned and orchestrated the killings of around 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, in 1994.
The former first lady was married to Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu president whose assassination in April that year set the massacres in motion.
She fled Rwanda days later with the help of the French military and has been living in France since 1998, despite repeated attempts by Kigali to have her extradited.
The case against her has been open since 2008, when a French-based victims' association filed a legal complaint. It has already been closed without charges three times before, but each time prosecutors have appealed the decision or requested a new probe.
After the most recent dismissal in August 2025, anti-terrorism prosecutors and the civil parties behind the complaint called for a review. The Paris Court of Appeal is now deliberating whether to uphold their challenge or end the case for good.
It had been due to hold its hearing on Wednesday, the day after the annual commemoration of the genocide. Instead, the court requested an extension until 6 May.
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Universal jurisdiction
Investigating magistrates have previously said the evidence against Habyarimana is not sufficient to prove she was an accomplice to genocide.
The postponement came on the same day that the Paris appeals court overturned the decision to drop the investigation into a former Rwandan army officer, Cyprien Kayumba, for allegedly supplying weapons used in the massacres. He denies knowing how the arms would be used.
That ruling means he will now face trial for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
Many people accused of participating in the Rwandan genocide later fled to France, a long-time ally of the Hutu regime.
A few have since faced prosecution under the principal of universal jurisdiction, which allows French courts to try cases of crimes against humanity even if they were committed outside its borders.
The cases against Habyarimana and Kayumba are among several dozen pursued by the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), an association founded in 2001 to seek the prosecution of genocide suspects in France.
