French judges have reportedly dropped a 20-year probe into an attack that killed Rwanda's president and sparked the country’s genocide. RT looked at France’s potential motivations for abruptly ending its two-decade investigation.

The inquiry into the 1994 assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana had been a thorn in the side of French-Rwandan relations. Seven people close to current Rwandan President Paul Kagame were charged in the probe. The inquest was reportedly shut down due to lack of evidence. The news comes two months after French prosecutors claimed that there was insufficient evidence to continue the case.

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Lawyers representing Habyarimana’s widow slammed the reported decision as “largely politically motivated” and vowed to appeal the judges’ decision. Habyarimana’s assassination triggered more than three months of killings that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, mostly members of the Tutsi minority.

Kagame has enjoyed warm relations with Paris under President Emmanuel Macron’s administration, with Macron even nominating Rwanda to chair the Francophonie, an international organization comprised of French-speaking nations.

RT’s Don Courtier explores why Paris may have shelved the unsolved case.

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