Rwandan president's widow arrested over 1994 genocide
In the 1994 genocide 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died
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by Sam Ross. |  |
Tuesday, 02, Mar 2010 05:06
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
The widow of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana has been arrested in France accused of playing a role in the country's 1994 genocide.
Agathe Habyarimana was issued with an international arrest warrant last year by Rwandan authorities.
French police confirmed on Tuesday she had been arrested in Paris, after she fled to Europe when her husband was killed 16 years ago.
She is being sought by prosecutors who say she helped her husband to plan the 1994 genocide - in which 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died - but she denies the accusations.
Ms Habyarimana's arrest follows a visit to the Rwandan capital Kigali last week by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The visit was the first by a French leader since the genocide.
Her lawyer Philippe Meilhac said the arrest was directly linked to Mr Sarkozy's recent visit, stating: "You can't not draw a link.
French officials said Mrs Habyarimana was detained in the Paris region by police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant.
France and Rwanda broke off diplomatic relations in 2006 after a Paris judge accused Rwanda's current president Paul Kagame and nine aides of shooting down Mr Habyarimana's plane in 1994.