In a statement, PNAT confirmed it has formally lodged an appeal against the May 16 decision, which concluded there was 'no serious and consistent evidence' linking the 82-year-old to either complicity in genocide or participation in a conspiracy to commit genocide.
The prosecutor's office is requesting further investigations to pursue potential charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, in a case that has dragged on for nearly two decades.
The May 16 ruling dismissed the PNAT's supplemental indictment request filed in September 2024, which sought to indict Habyarimana after years of stalled proceedings.
The judges noted that 'the rumour is persistent' regarding her alleged involvement, but insisted that 'it cannot be treated as proof in the absence of specific and consistent evidence."
Reacting to the appeal, Agathe Habyarimana's lawyer expressed frustration with the prosecutor's decision to continue pursuing the case, describing it as a "denial of justice".
'Faced with an empty case, as analysed by the ten judges who have handled it, they stubbornly persist in a purely delaying strategy aimed only at postponing the inevitable dismissal... all to satisfy diplomatic interests,' he said.
But civil party groups and genocide survivor associations argue that Habyarimana was not a passive figure during the Genocide against the Tutsi.
According to the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR), which filed the original complaint in 2008, she was a central member of the Akazu, the elite circle of Hutu extremists believed to have planned and coordinated the Genocide against the Tutsi.
The CPCR has also accused Habyarimana of financing Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), the notorious broadcaster that incited mass violence against Tutsis, and of ordering the massacre of staff at an orphanage she founded.
Other allegations include her involvement in compiling hit lists of Tutsi elites and her support for the presidential guard's terror campaigns following her husband's assassination on April 6, 1994.
Despite residing in France since 1998, Agathe Habyarimana has neither been granted asylum nor extradited to Rwanda.
She was evacuated from Kigali on April 9, 1994, with French assistance under the orders of then-President François Mitterrand, a close ally of her late husband. In 2016, French authorities designated her an assisted witness, a status between that of a suspect and a simple witness.
The case has been derailed by multiple legal hurdles, including the 2022 decision by the investigating judge to signal a potential case closure due to 'excessive delays.'
However, the PNAT reignited proceedings with a new indictment request in 2024 and continues to push for judicial accountability, citing the gravity of the charges and the ongoing demands for justice by survivors and civil society.
If the Paris Court of Appeal overturns the May 16 decision and grants PNAT's request, Agathe Habyarimana could finally be indicted for her alleged role in orchestrating one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Conviction on such charges would likely carry a life sentence.
The Court of Appeal's response to the prosecutor's appeal is expected in the coming weeks.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
