French authorities have arrested one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, who is also Rwanda’s most-wanted man, Félicien Kabuga. He is accused of funding the militias that massacred some 800 000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu over a span of 100 days in 1994.
#IRMCT fugitive Félicien Kabuga was arrested today in Paris, France. For further information about the arrest, including Prosecutor Brammertz’ statement: https://t.co/dg3fgz84CG pic.twitter.com/I09J6uUQ52
— UNIRMCT (@unirmct) May 16, 2020
Kabuga was arrested in the French capital, Paris, following a joint investigation between France and the office of the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
He has been on the run for 26 years.
Kabuga was arrested in a city near Paris where he has been living under a false identity.
He was indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1997 on seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination; all in relation to crimes committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Following the completion of appropriate procedures under French law, Kabuga is expected to the transferred to the custody of the Mechanism, where he will stand trial.