Arrested in mid-May after 26 years on the run, the Rwandan businessman faces seven counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. In late September, the Court of Cassation validated the arrest warrant issued against him and ordered his transfer to the mechanism, a UN body responsible for the latest cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which closed its doors in 2014. The mechanism has two branches, one in Tanzania and the other in the Netherlands. Upon arrival at the Scheveningen prison, he was quarantined.
as reported from The Hague, Stephanie Maupas
Félicien Kabuga will spend his first night on Monday evening, October 26, in the Scheveningen prison. The Rwandan businessman had to remain confined for ten days before he could meet his new neighbors: the former political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, during a trial in the court of the former Yugoslavia. Also ten days before his first appearance, where he will have to say whether he pleads guilty to genocide and crimes against humanity.
► Also read: Rwanda, in the footsteps of Félicien Kabuga
Félicien Kabuga should have joined the Arusha branch, where the tribunal for Rwanda sat for a long time. However, at the request of the defense, supported by the prosecutor, a judge decided that he would first stop in The Hague for medical examinations. Deciding whether or not the octogenarian is fit to join Arusha despite his health problems. And if the Covid-19 pandemic allows it.
The referee did not specify the duration of Félicien Kabuga’s Dutch stopover. The trial itself will not be opened for several months, it is time for the prosecutor to review a case dormant since 2011. In recent weeks, Serge Brammertz has reconstructed his teams and resumed the investigation. Former head and founder of the National Defense Fund, Félicien Kabuga, in particular will have to answer for his role in providing interahamwe militias
► Also read: Trial against Rwandan Kabuga: Prosecutor Brammertz “hopes it will take place and will come to an end” (Guest Africa).
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