Three Rwandans were arrested in Belgium. This information from the Belgian newspaper Le Vif was confirmed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Arrests in connection with the 1994 genocide investigation in Rwanda that had claimed 800,000 victims, mostly Tutsis. These arrests took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels and in the province of Hainaut.
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According to the federal prosecutor’s office, these three people were wanted for “serious violations of international humanitarian law”.
These are two separate, but very similar cases, reports Vincent dublange of the RFI service in Africa. At present, Belgian justice refuses to communicate the names. But according to the Belgian newspaper Le Vif, it would be Pierre Bassabossé, Séraphin Twahirwa and Christophe Ndangali.
The first is, according to our colleagues, a former member of the Akazu, a circle close to the hardliners of the Hutu regime at the time. Félicien Kabuga, recently arrested in France, was also part of this group led by the wife of the former Rwandan president, Agathe Habyarimana. According to the spokesman for the Belgian prosecution, about 40 testimonies were collected against these three men, Belgian investigators traveled to Rwanda.
One of the detainees is placed under an electronic bracelet. The other two are in custody. The Belgian Council’s branch is due to decide on Tuesday, October 6, whether they will be detained.
As for the possible return of these suspects to an Assize court in Belgium, it is not yet certain. It “will be ultimately determined on the basis of the case presented by the investigating judge and the prosecution,” the spokesman for the Belgian judicial system explained.
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