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A Paris court ruled on Monday that a libel suit Rwandan President Paul Kagame filed against a Cameroonian journalist on 6 March had exceeded the statute of limitations and could not, therefore, be heard, AFP reported.
The journalist, Charles Onana, is the author of a book entitled "Les Secrets du Genocide Rwandais". In his suit, Kagame accused Onana of referring to him as the organiser of the attack on 6 April 1994 on the aircraft as the result of which presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi were killed.
AFP reported that in its ruling, the court had said that "the book was definitely made available to the public before 6 December 2001, or more than three months before 6 March 2002, the date of the writ". Under a French law of 29 July 1881 on press freedom, AFP reported, regal action must be taken within three months after publication of the text in contention.
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