The Paris Court of Cassation on Wednesday, September 30, validated the surrender of the alleged Rwandan genocide Félicien Kabuga to international justice. France therefore now has one month to hand it over to the MTPI (Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals).
The Court of Cassation finally rejected the appeal introduced by the lawyers from Félicien Kabuga to avoid this transfer. The alleged Rwandan genocide will therefore be handed over to international justice.
She thus confirms the decision taken in June last year of the Court of Appeal of Paris. A court that, in the eyes of the judges, “correctly” performed its work and “validly” examined the question of Félicien Kabuga’s state of health before concluding that it was not incompatible with his transfer.
I remind you that Félicien Kabuga, 87, is in poor health for his lawyers. They tried to demonstrate that such a transfer was dangerous to his health. An argument that was not accepted.
France now has a month to organize the transfer of the octogenarian to the Mechanism of International Criminal Tribunals (MTPI), set up to prosecute cases that had not been tried by the Special Tribunal for Rwanda, now dissolved.
A transfer to Arusha is currently planned, but the prosecutor does not rule out making a new request to request that it be finally sent to The Hague, where the mechanism also has an office. This will undoubtedly depend on the information that will be collected about both the epidemic in Covid-19 and the health of Félicien Kabuga.
Many strangers hover in front of the trial
The prosecutor for the International Court of Justice is talking about a few months, but there are actually many unknowns.
First, the arrest warrant that made it possible to arrest him dates from 1997, and therefore the indictment that served as the basis for his arrest. arrest at 23. Therefore, an update job is required. This work has already started. Prosecutor Serge Brammertz set up a team of 10 people in Kigali. They are working to identify witnesses who are still alive, or new evidence or information that was not known at the time. A careful job.
Another unknown: the question of Félicien Kabuga’s state of health. From the outset, his defense has used all means to delay the case. We can therefore believe that with international justice they will also activate all sorts of levers or even try to demonstrate that he is not fit to follow a trial.
Before the Court of Cassation, his lawyer had claimed that he suffered from leukoaraiosis, a disease that affects both physical and mental capacity. “Whether in Paris, The Hague or Arusha, justice must investigate this issue one day,” Me Boré, one of Félicien Kabuga’s lawyers, said on Tuesday.
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