It almost seems obvious that Felicien Kabuga of Rwanda, one of the most wanted fugitives in the world, is losing his battle to resist being tried by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
The Paris Court of Appeals decided to transfer Kabuga to Arusha for trial concerning his role in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
He will be handed over to the Mechanism, a UN body responsible for trialing Rwandans in the civil war in Rwanda charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The Court’s President, Judge Pascale Belin, ruled that even in Tanzania, Kabuga could get medical services he is now enjoying in France.
His lawyer, Laurent Bayon, had told the Court that Kabuga was ill and that he sees a doctor almost every day, and that the eight-hour flight to Tanzania could jeopardize his health as well as in finding the truth about his role in the genocide. He’s in a wheel chair right now.
“There is no evidence that Félicien Kabuga’s condition is incompatible with his detention or transfer. No objective reason to doubt that the Mechanism is able to provide Félicien Kabuga with the same medical guarantees (in Tanzania) as those currently offered in France,” said the judge.
Kabuga had expressed his preference in France for the trial. His lawyers claimed that the ill health and advanced age of their client would have prevented his being moved to another country.
Kabuga was arrested in Asnieres-sur-Seine outside of Paris on 16 May in the Hautes-de-Seine department.
The 26 years fugitive who had adopted a false identity on the run, the 84-year-old is known as the Rwandan genocide financier.
The Mechanism released an arrest warrant in his name, with a reward of $5 million.
While the road to a possible trial is still a long one for him, on 3 June the Paris Court of Appeal, which was responsible for ruling on the validity of the arrest warrant, ordered Kabuga to be transferred to the Mechanism which has an office in Arusha and another in The Hague , the Netherlands.
During the spring and summer of 1994, the Rwandan government’s mass slaughter of rebel Tutsi and Hutu forces, known as the Rwandan genocide, spawned a civil war that killed between 500,000 and 1 million.
In 1997, Kabuga was charged with seven different charges by a tribunal, one of which was genocide.
The Paris Court’s decision on the Arusha trial comes a few days after the Mechanism judge William Sekule, sitting at Arusha, requested that he should be to moved and try Kabuga to the Mechanism’s Arusha Branch and not The Hague.
He responded to a motion by Serge Brammertz Mechanism Prosecutor seeking to amend Kabuga ‘s arrest and transfer order so that he was moved to The Hague , Netherlands, due to Covid-19, which triggered restrictions on travel and movement.
In dismissing the motion, Judge Sekule stated that the motion was not sufficiently supported, and that if transfer from France to Arusha where he was arrested and detained is not possible at the appropriate time, appropriate relief may be sought.
The ruling came a few days after Tanzania opened its skies, receiving tourists and other visitors since.
Kabuga ‘s lawyers said they’re going to contest the ruling of the French Court by filing two cassation appeals – one on the QPC and one on the move to the Mechanism.
Once filed, the Cassation Court will have two months to make a decision. Lawyers will then be able to refer the case to the European Court of Human Rights even if it is not a suspensive procedure. So the fate of Kabuga should be decided by the end of September.
