Félicien Kabuga, one of the alleged financiers of the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, will be tried from September 29 in The Hague where he will answer charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, a United Nations judge announced on Thursday. .

Arrested on May 16, 2020 in the suburbs of Paris after twenty-five years on the run, Félicien Kabuga is notably accused of having participated in the creation of the Hutu Interahamwe militias, the main armed arms of the 1994 genocide which killed more than 800,000 people according to the UN, mainly within the Tutsi minority.

His lawyers had tried to get him to escape trial on the grounds of his state of health.

But the trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had estimated in mid-June that the state of Félicien Kabuga, 87 years old according to the court, was not incompatible with the trial.

Various experts participated in the establishment of the case for the court, which "unequivocally demonstrates that Kabuga is in a vulnerable and fragile state", noted the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MTPI).

Rwanda's richest man in 1994

The accused needs "intensive medical care and supervision", and currently resides in a prison hospital "in light of his need for 24-hour nursing care", he said.

It is "in the interest of justice to open this trial as soon as possible, which means proceeding to the branch of The Hague", had specified the MTPI, the other branch of the tribunal, in Arusha, Tanzania, not having the medical equipment necessary to monitor the accused.

Félicien Kabuga was in 1994 one of the richest men in Rwanda.

He was then president of the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which broadcast calls for the murder of the Tutsi.

He is now indicted in particular for “genocide”, “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” and “crimes against humanity (persecutions and extermination)”.

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  • Rwanda

  • Genocide in Rwanda

  • Crime against humanity

  • Tpi

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