Updated

French judicial officials have filed preliminary charges related to Rwanda's genocide against a doctor who has lived and practiced in France for years.

Charles Twagira faces preliminary charges of crimes against humanity and genocide, and complicity in each, over his alleged role in the wave of killings in Rwanda in 1994 that left at least 500,000 dead — mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office said the charges Thursday follow a long investigation into allegations that Twagira had a hand in killings in the western Rwandan town of Kibuye. He resides in the Normandy town of Vire and has French nationality.

French authorities who long turned a blind eye to Rwanda's genocide have recently stepped up investigations into the matter.