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Indicted Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga appears before French court

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Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, indicted in his absence on charges of bankrolling ethnic militias that massacred some 800,000 people in 1994, was brought before a French court on Wednesday.

In his first appearance in public in more than two decades, the octogenarian was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, dressed in jeans and a blue jumper and wearing a face mask.

He spoke to confirm his identity.

Kabuga was arrested on Saturday in a Paris suburb and the court is to decide whether to transfer him for trial to a U.N. war crimes tribunal.

International war crimes investigators have requested that Kabuga be transferred to United Nations custody for trial, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

“We already requested his transfer. It is an arrest warrant and an indictment coming from the U.N. mechanism,” prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in an interview.

Kabuga could be transferred to The Hague before a trial in Arusha, Tanzania, where a U.N. court is handling cases dating back to the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 people, Brammertz said.

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