UN tribunal says geriatric genocide suspect cannot be sent to Rwanda
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Eric Emeraux, head of the Gendarmerie's Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes (OCLCH), diplays documents with a wanted poster depicting a photograph of Felicien Kabuga during an interview with Reuters at his office, about the arrest of Rwandan genocide fugitive suspect Felicien Kabuga, in Paris, France, May 19, 2020. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
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THE HAGUE - The United Nations war crimes tribunal on Friday ruled that a geriatric Rwandan genocide suspect, who has been found unfit to stand trial, is also not fit to travel to Rwanda and will need to remain in a U.N. detention unit as no states will accept him.
In their ruling, U.N. judges called on European states to take in nonagenarian Felicien Kabuga who is now wheelchair-bound and largely confined to the detention centre's hospital unit.
In 2023, the U.N. court said that Kabuga would not have to stand trial on genocide charges due to his dementia. Kabuga is in his early nineties, though his precise date of birth is disputed. He was arrested in France in 2020 after more than 20 years on the run.
The former businessman and radio station owner was one of the last suspects sought by the tribunal prosecuting crimes committed in the 1994 genocide, when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.
Prosecutors say Kabuga promoted hate speech through his broadcaster, Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), and armed ethnic Hutu militias. REUTERS
