Rwanda's genocide survivor’s umbrella and commission against genocide have hailed a French court of appeal decision to maintain the life sentence for Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira. However, they said France’s judicial system can do much more.

Last week Sunday, Assize Court in Paris (Appellate Court) upheld a sentence by the city’s Criminal Court to imprison for life the duo genocide convicts who had appealed the decision and had asked for leniency in November 2017.

According to Ibuka’s executive secretary Naphtal Ahishakiye, France made another great step forward in delivering justice to victims and survivors of the country’s Genocide against the Tutsi, although much more is expected from them.

“The upholding of the sentence is welcome. We think it a great step forward after the previous sentencing of Pascal Simbikangwa. But, we are urging them to arrest others who are still free.

“We would be happy to see Agathe Kanziga, wife to former president Juvenal Habayarimana and former first lady, arrested and brought to court to stand trial for similar genocide crimes, which she committed. We know for sure that she is in France, but she has not been brought to book,” he told Rwanda Today.

Mr Ahishakiye further said that even if the courts in Paris recently acquitted Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, whom they think committed awful crimes related to genocide, they were looking for other means to have him tried by other courts that are not in France’s jurisdiction.

On the other hand, he said that the the appeal has been hampering requests for compensation. He said that genocide survivors have the right to claim compensation.

“Pushing for criminal liabilities was one thing and calling for compensations is another. The witnesses did not press the court to deliberate on compensations during previous trials, but they can now,” he said.

Pascal Simbikangwa, a former intelligence chief in the genocidal regime, who faced charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, was last month sentenced to 25 years in prison after several appeals, while Wenceslas Munyeshyaka who was a vicar at Saint Famille Catholic Church in Kigali saw his earlier charges dropped due to lack of sufficient evidence.

The commission to fight against genocide in Rwanda (CNLG) also welcomed the Paris court of appeal decision saying that France was honouring its international obligation of ensuring universal jurisdiction of genocide crimes and crimes against humanity.

Octavien Ngenzi, born in 1954, in 1994, Ngenzi was the mayor of Kabarondo district in the East of the country. He was also the local leader of the former political party, the “National Republican Movement for Development and Democracy.”