Man to face trial for downplaying Rwanda genocide in book

French-Cameroonian author Charles Onana is set to face trial in Paris, accused of complicity in challenging the accepted narrative of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. 

This genocide saw approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed over a span of 100 days. In a book he published five years ago, Onana questioned the notion that Rwanda's Hutu government had premeditated the genocide, calling it "one of the biggest scams" of the 20th century.

Onana's lawyer, Emmanuel Pire, argues that the author does not deny the genocide or the specific targeting of Tutsis. 

He described the book as the product of a decade of research by Onana, a political scientist, seeking to analyze the events leading up to, during, and following the genocide.

This trial is not the first legal challenge Onana has faced over the controversial book. Four years ago, he and Damien Serieyx, his publishing director at Editions du Toucan, were sued by the NGO Survie and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for "publicly contesting a crime against humanity."

The trial marks only the second time in France that a case involving denial of the Rwandan genocide has reached the courts. 

Onana has also criticized France’s response to the Rwandan genocide, accusing the country of turning a blind eye to the looming disaster and favoring silence over seeking the truth, though he denies that France was complicit in the killings.