Pascal Simbikangwa

Simbikangwa, born in Karago in 1959, became disabled in 1986 following a car accident. He became head of Rwanda's Central Intelligence Agency. Simbikangwa was also captain of the presidential guard while he was the chief of intelligence.^[2]

He remained in these positions through the genocide, fleeing Rwanda in the late summer of 1994. Simbikangwa first fled to the Comoros Islands.^[1] In 2008, he filed for political asylum in Mayotte. He was arrested on 28 October 2008 for falsification of papers. He was tried in France under a French law that allows anyone accused of crimes against humanity to be extradited there.^[3]

During his 2014 trial in France, Simbikangwa was described as a close friend and distant cousin of Juvénal Habyarimana, whose assassination sparked ethnic tensions in Rwanda. Prosecutors showed that Simbikangwa was the a top shareholder in Free Radio-Television des Milles Collines, one of the main Hutu propaganda arms, which called openly for genocide. Simbikangwa was accused and found guilty of creating lists of Tutsi and moderate-Hutu leaders who would be targeted for genocide.^[4] Simbikangwa was found guilty on 14 March 2014 of "complicity in genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity."^[4] He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.^[4]