Germany Extradites Top Rwandan Presidential Aide to France

A top aide to Rwandan President Paul Kagame is in France, after being extradited from Germany on suspicion of participating in the assassination of Rwanda's former leader in 1994. Lisa Bryant has more for VOA from Paris.

German authorities have held Rwandan presidential aid Rose Kabuye since she was arrested last week at Frankfurt airport on a warrant issued by a French magistrate. She was extradited from Germany and is expected to appear before an anti-terrorist judge in France.

Before her extradition, Kabuye's lawyer explained on French radio the procedures she would face and said his client was eager to defend her innocence.

Kabuye is suspected of playing a role in a 1994 plane crash that killed Rwanda President Juvenal Hayarimana and triggered a genocide that killed more than 800,000 people in that East African country in a matter of months.

The Rwandan government has defended her innocence and thousands of people have demonstrated in Kigali in support of her.

Her warrant is among 10 issued in a probe of the role President Kagame's aides may have played in the plane crash.

France and Rwanda have traded accusations over each other's involvement in the genocide, and bilateral relations have sharply deteriorated over the matter. Rwanda issued a report earlier this year that accused senior French political and military figures of actively supporting Hutu militia involved in the killings.