This archive report was first published on 20 May 2020.
May 20, 2020
War crimes investigators have requested the transfer of Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga into UN custody from France, a move that could see him face trial in The Hague rather than Africa due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
Kabuga, 84, was detained in a Paris suburb on Saturday after a quarter century on the run, making him the most high-profile fugitive of the UN tribunal which tried suspects related to the 1994 massacres in Arusha, Tanzania.
Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said that it is 'definitely an option' for a first legal phase to be conducted in The Hague, where Kabuga could be held at a UN detention facility in the Netherlands.
Kabuga faces five counts of genocide for allegedly being one of the chief financiers of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, suspected of bankrolling and arming the militias that slaughtered over a million Tutsis.
He also allegedly funded a radio station known for spreading hate speech, the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, the indictment said.
