A French judge has issued international arrest warrants for nine Rwandans suspected of plotting the 1994 killing of a former president, which led to genocide in Rwanda.
Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued the warrants in Paris this week. The nine named suspects include Rwandan armed forces chief James Kabarebe and Army Chief of Staff Charles Kayonga, as well as two men, Franck Nziza and Eric Hakiziman, suspected of firing the missile that downed then-President Juvenal Habyarimana's airplane.
The warrants alleged that current President Paul Kagame ordered the killing. Mr. Kagame has denied the charges, dismissing them as politically motivated.
Bruguiere leads the investigation into the attack that set off genocide in which ethnic Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a span of 100 days.
So far, the separate Rwanda war crimes tribunal, in Tanzania, has tried more than 30 suspects. It has convicted at least 26 suspects and acquitted five. Trials are under way for 25 others.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP .