Pascal Simbikangwa, the first person to be found guilty in France in connection with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has returned to court to appeal his 25-year jail sentence, BBC Afrique reports.
In 2014, a French court found Simbikangwa guilty of genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity.
The sentence came at a time that France was accused by the Rwandan government of providing a safe haven to genocide suspects.
Simbikangwa, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a car crash in the 1980s, was accused of organising roadblocks where ethnic Hutu militia murdered many of their victims, AFP reports.
He was quoted by AFP as saying today:
I was a soldier but after my accident I returned to civilian life.”
At least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the genocide.
Relations between France and Rwanda have been tense since 1994.
Rwanda says France provided support to the Hutu regime in power at the time of the massacre.
Former French military officials believe rebel fighters allied to those in power in Kigali today sparked the killing by downing the plane in April 1994 of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana.
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