A French court has convicted Charles Onana, a 60-year-old Cameroonian author, and his publisher, Damien Serieyx, for minimizing the Rwandan genocide in Onana’s 2019 book, Rwanda, The Truth About Operation Turquoise. Onana was fined €8,400 ($8,900; £7,000), while Serieyx was ordered to pay €5,000. The court also ordered them to compensate €11,000 to the human rights organizations that brought the case.
Onana’s controversial book questioned the premise that the 1994 genocide, carried out by Hutu extremists, was a premeditated act of mass murder targeting the Tutsi population. The court found that Onana’s writings violated French laws on genocide denial and incitement to hatred. The judge emphasized that France would no longer tolerate genocide denial.
The Rwandan genocide resulted in the deaths of around 800,000 people within 100 days, primarily targeting the Tutsi ethnic group and political opponents. Onana’s portrayal of the genocide as one of the “biggest scams of the last century” was widely criticized for downplaying the atrocities. Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, celebrated the conviction as a significant step forward in the fight against genocide denial.
Survie, an NGO, and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) filed the lawsuit against Onana and Serieyx for public denial of a crime against humanity. Critics argued that the book distorted historical facts, but Onana’s lawyer, Emmanuel Pire, defended the book, stating that it was a result of 10 years of research into the genocide’s causes and consequences. Pire added that Onana did not deny that a genocide occurred or that Tutsis were specifically targeted.
The prosecution hailed the decision as a victory for justice and for protecting genocide survivors. Richard Gisagara, the prosecution lawyer, called it the first time that genocide deniers have been penalized in Europe under these laws.
Under French law, it is illegal to deny or minimize any genocide officially recognized by the country. Both Onana and Serieyx have appealed the court’s decision.
