France, April 8 -- French courts are weighing accusations that Habyarimana was part of the Hutu inner circle that planned and orchestrated the killings of around 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis, in 1994.

The former first lady was married to Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu president whose assassination in April that year set the massacres in motion. 

She fled Rwanda days later with the help of the French military and has been living in France since 1998, despite repeated attempts by Kigali to have her extradited.

The case against her has been open since 2008, when a French-based victims' association filed a legal complaint. It has already been closed without charges three times before, but each time pros...