Rwanda: what awaits Félicien Kabuga, the alleged “financier” of the genocide

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Prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the spring of 1994 in Rwanda, the businessman Félicien Kabuga, arrested on May 16 in France, will be tried by the Mechanism responsible for closing the last files of international courts. 

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With our correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas

Arrested on May 16 in his apartment in Asnières sur Seine in the Paris suburbs, Félicien Kabuga should be transferred to The Hague after final proceedings in France. Heard by the Nanterre public prosecutor's office, it must still be heard by the national public prosecutor's office in Paris at the beginning of the week. A hearing before the Indictment Division will then be organized which will have to decide on his transfer to The Hague.  

Félicien Kabuga will be tried by the Mechanism, a body created by the United Nations in 2010 to succeed the courts for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. An essentially budgetary decision. In practice, the Mechanism performs the same functions. He must liquidate the last files. Conclude the final trials, examine requests for remission of sentence, watch over the witnesses who had been placed under protection, preserve the archives and above all, track down the last fugitives. 

Seven defendants originally prosecuted by the Rwanda court are still at large. If they are arrested one day, five of them, considered as small fish, will be sent to Rwandan justice. Like the ICTR, the Mechanism is responsible for trying the highest officials. Among them, "the financier of the genocide", Félicien Kabuga. Initially transferred to The Hague, he could also be tried in Arusha, where the Mechanism also has a courtroom. The decision has not yet been made. 

Two other high-ranking fugitives will also be tried by the Mechanism if they are ever arrested . Protais Mpiranya, former commander of the Presidential Guard and Augustin Bizimana, former Minister of Defense. 

However, two days after Félicien Kabuga's arrest in France, gray areas remain. Because to have escaped justice for 23 years, Félicien Kabuga certainly benefited from complicity according to the association Survie. Researcher François Graner recalls the links between Félicien Kabuga and Agathe Habyarimana, the wife of the former Rwandan president. They belonged to the same political circles, notably the Akazou, an influential circle led by Agathe Habyarimana, who she was never imprisoned.

Now, there is starting to be initiative taken on the side of French justice and therefore we hope that the next will concern Agathe Habyarimana.

François Graner, specialist in Rwanda and member of the association Survie

Coralie Pierret

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• International justice
• France
• Rwanda

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