In 2007, the civil parties collective for Rwanda, founded by Reims residents Dafroza and Alain Gauthier, filed a complaint against Agathe Kanziga-Habyarimana, wife of the assassinated Rwandan president, for “complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.” On May 21, 2025, a hearing was scheduled to rule on her possible indictment… but the judges decided otherwise.
The hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, had been long-awaited by Alain and Dafroza Gauthier, the founders of the Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR). “Was” because the judge from the Crimes Against Humanity Unit of the Paris Judicial Court in charge of the case delivered these conclusions on Friday, May 16, revealed on May 19 by AFP:
“The investigations into Agathe Habyarimana for her possible role in the 1994 Tutsi genocide have been closed, without the widow of the former Rwandan president having been charged (…) Placed since 2016 under the intermediate status of assisted witness, Agathe Habyarimana is, at this stage, escaping trial.”
Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, widow of the Rwandan president whose assassination triggered the 1994 genocide. Photo Paris, April 30, 2014. BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Alain Gauthier, whom I met a few hours before the publication of the AFP dispatch, was already very cautious: “I am very reserved for the moment. I live on hope, but doubt is deeply etched in my heart.” Doubts that are becoming reality.
Complaint filed in 2017, closed in 2025
In February 2007, Alain and Dafroza Gauthier, or the collective of civil parties for Rwanda, filed a complaint for complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity against Agathe Kanziga-Habyarimana, wife of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, assassinated on April 6, 1994. The day after her death, the genocide began. Alain and Dafroza Gauthier accused Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana of complicity:
“I think, along with many others, that she played a much more important role than the one she attributes to herself,” explains Alain Gauthier. “She presents herself as a woman who takes care of her household, her chickens, her pigs. I did, however, meet a witness who summoned me, an old Rwandan trader who lives in Dijon, and who described Mrs. Habyarimana to me as truly a woman of power. She was the one who practically ruled her husband.” And to relate: “He gave me to understand that to meet Juvénal Habyarimana, you always had to go through her. She was from a very well-known lineage and family in Rwanda, which had the reputation of governing both the political and financial systems.”…….
“She was very close, like some of her brothers and cousins, to Hutu extremists,” Alain Gauthier continues. “Those in particular from the CDR, the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic, who defended the most extreme theses and who opposed the Arusha Accords that her husband had just signed. On the very day of the attack, some witnesses described her behavior. I am thinking in particular of one of the daughters of President Habyarimana’s doctor, who spoke of Agathe Habyarimana, saying that she called for crimes, for murders. She rejoiced when she learned of this or that disappearance. She worked a lot behind the scenes, quietly, but she was there, probably in the preparation of the genocide. Some even accused her of having also rejoiced at the death of her husband. These are things that are said, then you have to prove it.”
Three days after the start of the genocide, Agathe Habyarimana arrived in France, welcomed by the French government. Thirty-one years later, she still lives in Evry-Courcouronne in Essonne, near Paris, with a rather unusual status.
Agathe Habyarimana’s asylum applications were rejected and she was living in France without papers
On April 9, 1994, Agathe Habyarimana was evacuated by the French army and arrived in France. A few years later, she settled in a house in Evry-Courcouronne. Like any foreigner, the former first lady of Rwanda applied for asylum and was heard by OFPRA (French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) and the CRR (Refugee Appeals Commission).
In January 2007, the latter denied her asylum. Two years later, the Council of State issued the same refusal, later reiterated by the Prefect of Essonne. Agathe Habyarimana filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights in December 2013, but no decision has yet been reached. To this day, she continues to live undocumented in France.
For its part, Rwanda issued an international arrest warrant against her in 2009, but her extradition was refused by France.
Following this international arrest warrant, the French authorities arrested her in October 2009 before releasing her. “We can assume that she benefited from political support,” says Alain Gauthier. “She was welcomed by President Mitterrand very soon after her husband’s death, with a check and bouquets of flowers. She was clearly protected.“
On Wednesday, September 28, 2011, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected Rwanda’s request for the extradition of Agathe Habyarimana.
At 82, Agathe Habyarimana has so far escaped trial. But Wednesday’s hearing at the Paris Judicial Court is still on. What will happen there? Is this to pronounce a dismissal?
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