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Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Ex-Radio Rwanda journalist detained in France over 1994 genocide
Representative image (AI) PARIS: A journalist at the government Radio Rwanda during the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsis was charged and detained in France at the end of April, a source close to the case told AFP on Thursday. The anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) confirmed that Hyacinthe Bicamumpaka was indicted for genocide, complicity in crimes against humanity and conspiracy. His pre-trial detention was upheld on appeal on May 9, according to a judicial source. Alongside Radio Mille Collines, which was nicknamed "Radio Genocide" or "Hutu Power Radio", Radio Rwanda was the official Hutu government radio station during the genocide. Bicamumpaka was a "prominent journalist" who was "very close to the main planners of the genocide", the executive secretary of the genocide survivors' group Ibuka, Naphtali Ahishakiye told AFP. In 2021, French online investigative news outlet Mediapart said Bicamumpaka was in France with two other Rwandans suspected of having taken part in the genocide. France's OCLCH crimes against humanity unit began an investigation soon after. Bicamumpaka arrived in France in June 1994, with Rwanda in the grip of the genocide, according to French authorities. His refugee request, consulted online, stated that the Hutu origin journalist claimed he could not return to his country where "members of his ethnic group are now persecuted", and said he actively worked through his broadcasts to promote peace. His asylum claim was rejected, with the refugee commission stating that Radio Rwanda was a "vehicle of government propaganda at a time when the Rwandan government notoriously tolerated and encouraged a genocide against the Tutsi population". As a journalist for the station, "Mr Bicamumpaka could not ignore that he contributed, even indirectly, to the perpetration of mass murder", it added. The genocide by the Hutu regime in power between April and July 1994 resulted in about 800,000 deaths, according to the UN. The overwhelming majority were from the Tutsi minority.
L'Orient-Le Jour
03-05-2025
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Prison attacks in France: Drug traffickers' involvement confirmed
The involvement of drug traffickers has been confirmed in the investigation into attacks on prisons and penitentiary staff in France. Twenty-one suspects were presented on Friday to investigating judges tasked with organized crime in Paris. Pretrial detention has been requested for these individuals, including two minors and seven already incarcerated, according to a joint statement from the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) and the National Jurisdiction for Combating Organized Crime (JUNALCO), now solely responsible for the investigations. "Among the accused" is "the individual believed to be the creator of the first Telegram account titled DDPF (Defense of French Prisoners) and author of the claim text broadcast on this channel, criticizing prison conditions," they highlight. Already detained, convicted for common law offenses, he is to be tried soon for acts related to drug-related crime close to the DZ Mafia in Marseille, France's second-largest city. The "DDPF" group, then completely unknown, had posted videos and threats on this encrypted messaging platform, which subsequently deleted them and closed the channel. The investigations "highlighted a similar operational method, deployed repeatedly: following an action order given by the instigator of the +DDPF+ movement on a Telegram channel, offers for actions were broadcast and relayed on social media, executors were recruited and carried out the acts, in exchange for significant remuneration," the statement relates. "This operational method corresponds to that now typically employed by criminal organizations to carry out missions on their behalf," the text adds. In total, 30 people, including four minors, were apprehended between Monday and Wednesday during a large-scale operation throughout France. Seven police custody cases were lifted without prosecution at this stage. An adult and a minor are referred Friday before an investigating judge in Lyon, as the acts they are suspected of committing could not be linked to the main investigation. 300 investigators The judicial investigation, opened Friday by JUNALCO for, among other things, criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing crimes and misdemeanors and attempted murder in organized gangs, focuses on about fifteen actions carried out against prisons and penitentiary staff since April 13. That day, in Agen (southwest), the "DDPF" tag appeared for the first time near seven cars set on fire in the parking lot of the National School of Penitentiary Administration (Enap). This was followed by a series of car fires of penitentiary staff members throughout France, firework mortar shots on prisons, and even Kalashnikov shots as in Toulon (southeast). The investigation also focuses on firearm shots and the throwing of two Molotov cocktails targeting on April 21 a housing area in Villefontaine near Lyon (central-east) where penitentiary staff reside, not far from the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier prison. As early as April 15, the PNAT took charge of the investigation due to "the nature of these acts, the chosen targets, and the coordinated nature of actions committed on multiple points across the territory, as well as their aim to seriously disrupt public order through intimidation, as claimed on social media by a group called +DDPF+." However, following the operation, "it does not appear that these coordinated actions stem from a terrorist enterprise whose sole purpose would have been to seriously disturb public order through intimidation or terror," the PNAT and JUNALCO elaborate. "No violent radical ideology, no foreign interference, avenues fully explored, could be characterized," they continue. "However, the investigations have definitively placed these actions within extremely organized crime," according to the statement. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin had attributed the attacks to organized crime from the outset, while the Parliament definitively adopted on Tuesday a bill aimed at strengthening the fight against drug traffickers. "More than 300 investigators throughout the national territory" were mobilized during the investigations.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Yahoo
French jail attacks no longer being investigated as terrorism
By Gabriel Stargardter PARIS (Reuters) - French anti-terrorism prosecutors will no longer handle the investigation into 30 people suspected of involvement in a spate of prison attacks, saying on Friday their alleged actions were "within the framework of major organised crime". Over five separate nights in April, at least 10 French prisons were attacked. Automatic weapons were fired at jails, cars were torched in prison car parks and officers were intimidated in their homes. Despite government ministers saying the attacks were likely sparked by a push to crack down on gangsters running their drug empires from behind bars, the French national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) quickly took charge of the probe. However, on Friday, the PNAT said: "It does not appear that these coordinated actions stem from a terrorist enterprise ... No radical violent ideology, no foreign interference, both leads that were deeply investigated, could be found." The PNAT said 30 people had been arrested for alleged involvement in the attacks. Seven were already serving time in jail and four were minors. Seven have subsequently been released, it said. The PNAT said investigators had identified the alleged creator of the "DDPF," or "French prisoners' rights," group on Telegram, which it said was used to defend the attacks and rail against conditions for those behind bars. It said the person was a convicted inmate, awaiting trial in a drug gang trial, with alleged links to Marseille's powerful and fast-expanding DZ Mafia gang. The DDPF tag was daubed across many of the prisons attacked, and the PNAT alleged the DDPF Telegram group was used to order the hits, tendering out the work to small-time criminals to carry them out in a fashion commonly used by French gangs. Given the alleged links to organised crime, the PNAT said it was handing the probe over to the JUNALCO organised crime office at the Paris prosecutor's office. The prison attacks have underlined France's growing problems with organised crime. This week, lawmakers approved a sweeping counter-narcotics law to equip the state with tougher tools to fight a sharp rise in drug crime following a record-breaking surge of South American cocaine into Europe. The new law will create a national prosecutor's office for organised crime, and isolate dangerous kingpins in prisons, among other measures.
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Straits Times
French jail attacks no longer being investigated as terrorism
FILE PHOTO: A prison watchtower is seen at the Tarascon prison near Avignon, France, April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Manon Cruz/File Photo PARIS - French anti-terrorism prosecutors will no longer handle the investigation into 30 people suspected of involvement in a spate of prison attacks, saying on Friday their alleged actions were "within the framework of major organised crime". Over five separate nights in April, at least 10 French prisons were attacked. Automatic weapons were fired at jails, cars were torched in prison car parks and officers were intimidated in their homes. Despite government ministers saying the attacks were likely sparked by a push to crack down on gangsters running their drug empires from behind bars, the French national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) quickly took charge of the probe. However, on Friday, the PNAT said: "It does not appear that these coordinated actions stem from a terrorist enterprise ... No radical violent ideology, no foreign interference, both leads that were deeply investigated, could be found." The PNAT said 30 people had been arrested for alleged involvement in the attacks. Seven were already serving time in jail and four were minors. Seven have subsequently been released, it said. The PNAT said investigators had identified the alleged creator of the "DDPF," or "French prisoners' rights," group on Telegram, which it said was used to defend the attacks and rail against conditions for those behind bars. It said the person was a convicted inmate, awaiting trial in a drug gang trial, with alleged links to Marseille's powerful and fast-expanding DZ Mafia gang. The DDPF tag was daubed across many of the prisons attacked, and the PNAT alleged the DDPF Telegram group was used to order the hits, tendering out the work to small-time criminals to carry them out in a fashion commonly used by French gangs. Given the alleged links to organised crime, the PNAT said it was handing the probe over to the JUNALCO organised crime office at the Paris prosecutor's office. The prison attacks have underlined France's growing problems with organised crime. This week, lawmakers approved a sweeping counter-narcotics law to equip the state with tougher tools to fight a sharp rise in drug crime following a record-breaking surge of South American cocaine into Europe. The new law will create a national prosecutor's office for organised crime, and isolate dangerous kingpins in prisons, among other measures. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
02-05-2025
- Reuters
French jail attacks no longer being investigated as terrorism
PARIS, May 2 (Reuters) - French anti-terrorism prosecutors will no longer handle the investigation into 30 people suspected of involvement in a spate of prison attacks, saying on Friday their alleged actions were "within the framework of major organised crime". Over five separate nights in April, at least 10 French prisons were attacked. Automatic weapons were fired at jails, cars were torched in prison car parks and officers were intimidated in their homes. Despite government ministers saying the attacks were likely sparked by a push to crack down on gangsters running their drug empires from behind bars, the French national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) quickly took charge of the probe. However, on Friday, the PNAT said: "It does not appear that these coordinated actions stem from a terrorist enterprise ... No radical violent ideology, no foreign interference, both leads that were deeply investigated, could be found." The PNAT said 30 people had been arrested for alleged involvement in the attacks. Seven were already serving time in jail and four were minors. Seven have subsequently been released, it said. The PNAT said investigators had identified the alleged creator of the "DDPF," or "French prisoners' rights," group on Telegram, which it said was used to defend the attacks and rail against conditions for those behind bars. It said the person was a convicted inmate, awaiting trial in a drug gang trial, with alleged links to Marseille's powerful and fast-expanding DZ Mafia gang. The DDPF tag was daubed across many of the prisons attacked, and the PNAT alleged the DDPF Telegram group was used to order the hits, tendering out the work to small-time criminals to carry them out in a fashion commonly used by French gangs. Given the alleged links to organised crime, the PNAT said it was handing the probe over to the JUNALCO organised crime office at the Paris prosecutor's office. The prison attacks have underlined France's growing problems with organised crime. This week, lawmakers approved a sweeping counter-narcotics law to equip the state with tougher tools to fight a sharp rise in drug crime following a record-breaking surge of South American cocaine into Europe. The new law will create a national prosecutor's office for organised crime, and isolate dangerous kingpins in prisons, among other measures.
