60-year-old Franco-Cameroonian author, Charles Onana, was found guilty by a Paris court on December 9 for “complicity in publicly contesting the existence of a crime against humanity.” The conviction relates to statements made in his 2019 book Rwanda, the Truth About Operation Turquoise, in which he described the concept of a Hutu-planned genocide as “one of the greatest scams of the 20th century.”
Onana was fined €8,400, while his publisher, Damien Serieyx of Éditions du Toucan, was handed a €5,000 fine. The court also ordered them to pay €11,000 in damages to the human rights organisations that filed the lawsuit.
The case stems from France’s 2017 press freedom law, which criminalises the denial or downplaying of recognised genocides. Onana’s book had been criticised by groups like Survie, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme, and the International Federation for Human Rights.
The 1994 Rwandan genocide, carried out by an extremist Hutu regime, led to the deaths of 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, according to the UN.
Outside the courtroom, some of Onana’s supporters chanted slogans like “Onana innocent” and “Kagame assassin,” referring to Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Security forces quickly intervened to disperse the protest.
