France, Oct. 4 -- Dafroza Gauthier died on Saturday in Reims, the French city where the couple had lived since the 1980s. She is survived by her husband and three children.

The Gauthiers were often compared in France to Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, the Nazi hunters who tracked down war criminals after the Holocaust.

They founded the Collective of Civil Plaintiffs for Rwanda (CPCR), an association that filed civil suits against dozens of genocide suspects in France. In several cases, these led to criminal trials under the principal of universal jurisdiction, which allows suspects residing in France to be tried for serious crimes regardless of where they were committed.

Seven have received a final conviction and prison sentences ranging fr...