On Wednesday a French court ordered Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga to be handed over for trial to a United Nations tribunal.
UN Prosecutors accuse Kabuga of bankrolling and arming ethnic Hutu militias who in 1994 killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda for a period of 100 days. Among other charges, he is indicted for genocide and for incitement to commit genocide.
Kabuga, whose May arrest in Paris ended a manhunt lasting more than two decades, called the charges lies.
His lawyers say the case, located in The Hague and Arusha, Tanzania, will not provide a fair trial. They also argue that his health is too frail to transfer him to the African country especially during a dangerous pandemic.
But a transfer was “not incompatible” with his health, the court said. The 87-year-old is currently being held in a jail in Paris.
In an address to the U.N. ahead of Wednesday’s ruling, Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Kabuga ‘s lawyers urged him to leave the case to the French courts.
“If you were to decide to assert the primacy of your jurisdiction over French jurisdiction, thus endangering the life of Felicien Kabuga, we would take the risk of renouncing on discovering the truth forever,” Laurent Bayon wrote, citing Kabuga’s medical history.
