A UN tribunal based in The Hague said on Wednesday that Félicien Kabuga, alleged financier of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, now in his 80s, was “unfit” to stand trial and therefore there would be no trial .
Last main genocide suspect to be brought to justice, the former businessman, once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest, is accused of using his fortune and networks to serve the massacres, delivering machetes en masse , according to the prosecution, and running a radio station which called for the murder of the Tutsi, the infamous Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM).
His trial opened in September, more than a quarter of a century after the genocide which killed more than 800,000 people, according to the UN, mainly among the Tutsi minority.
UN judges had already announced the suspension of the trial in March, the time to decide if Mr. Kabuga – born in 1935 according to the court but aged 90 according to other sources – was in good enough health to remain on the dock.
The court has now “concluded that Mr. Félicien Kabuga is unfit to participate meaningfully in his trial and that it is highly unlikely that he will return to form in the future”, the court said in an official document dated of Tuesday.
The court said it was looking for an alternative “which resembles a trial as much as possible, but without the possibility of conviction”, to “guarantee respect for its rights” while achieving the objectives of the jurisdiction.
Arrested in 2020 near Paris after 25 years on the run, Mr. Kabuga is notably accused of having participated in the creation of the Hutu Interahamwe militias, the armed wing of the Hutu genocidal regime.
The businessman refused to appear in court or remotely at the start of his trial and later took part via videoconference, in a wheelchair, from the United Nations detention center in The Hague.
Mr Kabuga pleaded not guilty to charges that he had been involved in RTLM radio urging the killing of Tutsi “cockroaches” during the massacre. He also denied supplying machetes or otherwise supporting Hutu Interahamwe militias.
Mr. Kabuga is on trial before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (the “Mechanism”), responsible for completing the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The ICTR convicted 62 people. Others, like Augustin Bizimana, one of the main architects of the massacre, and Protais Mpiranya, former commander of the Presidential Guard battalion of the Rwandan armed forces, died without facing international justice.
Fulgence Kayishema, one of the last four fugitives wanted for their role in the genocide, was arrested in May in South Africa.
07/06/2023 09:31:39 – The Hague (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
