A UN tribunal based in The Hague said on Wednesday that Félicien Kabuga, alleged financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, now in his 80s, is “unable” to stand trial and that there is therefore no trial become.
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The latest genocide prime suspect to be brought to justice, the former businessman and once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest, is accused of using his wealth and networks in the massacres, allegedly mass supplying machetes and running a radio station, who called for the murder of the Tutsi, the notorious Radiotélévision libre des Mille collines (RTLM).
His trial began in September, more than a quarter-century after the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi minority, according to the UN.
UN judges had announced the stay of the trial back in March when it came to deciding whether Mr. Kabuga – born in 1935 according to the court but 90 years old according to other sources – was in good health to remain in the dock .
The court has now “concluded that Mr. Félicien Kabuga is unable to take a meaningful part in his trial and that it is highly unlikely that he will return to his form in the future.” an official document from Tuesday.
The court said it was looking for an alternative “as similar as possible to a trial but without the possibility of a conviction” to “ensure respect for his rights” while achieving the objectives of the judiciary.
Tutsi “cockroaches”
Arrested near Paris in 2020 after 25 years on the run, Mr Kabuga is specifically accused of involvement in the creation of the Hutu Interahamwe militias, the armed wing of the genocidal Hutu regime.
The businessman refused to appear in court or remotely at the start of his trial and later attended via video conference in a wheelchair from the United Nations detention center in The Hague.
Mr Kabuga pleaded not guilty to calling for the killing of Tutsi “cockroaches” during the massacre on RTLM radio. He also denied supplying machetes or otherwise supporting Hutu Interahamwe militias.
Mr Kabuga is on trial before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (the “Mechanism”), which is responsible for completing the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The ICTR convicted 62 people. Others, such as Augustin Bizimana, one of the main architects of the massacre, and Protais Mpiranya, former commander of the Rwandan Armed Forces Presidential Guard Battalion, died without facing international justice.
Fulgence Kayishema, one of the last four fugitives wanted for his part in the genocide, was arrested in South Africa in May.