French author convicted for denying the Rwandan genocide

A court in France found Franco-Cameroonian author Charles Onana guilty of downplaying the Rwandan genocide, during which hundreds of thousands of people were exterminated.

The 60-year-old author was fined €8,400. Damien Serieyx, director of the publishing house Éditions du Toucan, was ordered to pay €5,000. Both were also required to pay €11,000 in compensation to human rights organizations that filed the lawsuit.

The Paris court ruled that Onana’s writings violated French laws prohibiting genocide denial and incitement to hatred, according to a report by the BBC. The court further noted that Onana “trivializes and outrageously challenges” the genocide that occurred between April and July 1994.

In his 2019 book Rwanda, the Truth About Operation Turquoise, Onana described the notion that the Hutu government orchestrated a genocide in Rwanda as “one of the greatest deceptions” of the 20th century.

Within just 100 days, approximately 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda by Hutu extremists, who targeted members of the Tutsi minority as well as political opponents, regardless of ethnicity.

The author’s lawyer argued that the book was “the work of a political scientist based on 10 years of research to understand the mechanisms of the genocide before, during, and after the events.” He maintained that Onana did not deny the genocide occurred or that Tutsis were particularly targeted.

Under French law, denying or “minimizing” any genocide officially recognized by France constitutes a criminal offense.

Both Onana and his publisher have appealed the court’s decision.

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