Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga denounces charges

Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, arrested this month after more than two decades on the run, told a French court yesterday that the international charges against him were lies.

Mr Kabuga was indicted by UN prosecutors for genocide and incitement to commit genocide, among other charges. He is accused of bankrolling and arming the ethnic Hutu militias that killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days in 1994.

Asked if he understood the charges, Mr Kabuga told the court through an interpreter: “All of this is lies. I have not killed any Tutsis. I was working with them.”

His lawyers also said he believes he will not receive a fair trial in an international court, which he would consider politically biased, whereas he thinks he could have one in France.

Mr Kabuga was arrested in a Paris suburb on May 16. His lawyers told the court he should be released under court supervision because of his age and poor health, and that the results of a DNA test used to identify him should be annulled because he had not given consent.

The court’s three judges will decide whether to transfer Mr Kabuga to the international tribunal based in The Hague and Arusha, Tanzania.

Mr Kabuga was too elderly and sick to be transferred and should be tried in France, his lawyers said.

“This court is just saying ‘go and get judged elsewhere but not here’.

“It wants to hand him over him without consideration for his age and health, which could have irreversible consequences,” defence lawyer Laurent Bayon told the court.

Mr Kabuga was found after a 26-year manhunt by French agents who tracked him down through his children.

The inquiry gathered pace in March after an intelligence-sharing meeting between investigators from France, Britain and Belgium, where some of Mr Kabuga’s children have homes.

Europe’s Europol law enforcement agency and a team from a UN tribunal were also involved.

The coronavirus lockdown paralysing most of Europe meant many investigations were put on hold, allowing a focus on Mr Kabuga’s file, said Eric Emeraux, head of the Gendarmerie’s Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity.