The Paris Court of Cassation on Wednesday upheld the decision to hand over Felicien Kabuga, accused of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in Tanzania, the French RFI radio station reported
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2020) The Paris Court of Cassation on Wednesday upheld the decision to hand over Felicien Kabuga, accused of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in Tanzania, the French RFI radio station reported.
According to the media outlet, France has one month to extradite Kabuga to the IRMCT, where he will stand trial.
The Rwandan businessman in his 80s was caught in Paris in mid-May after more than 25 years on the run. He was indicted by the international criminal tribunal in 1997 for inciting and financing the killings of some 800,000 minority ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The genocide in the East African country began after a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down over Kigali airport on April 6, 1994, killing Habyarimana and the president of neighboring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira. The plane crash was followed by 100 days of massacres.
As the presidential plane had a French staff, the Rwandan government denounced France for involvement in the accident and subsequent mass slaughters. France has denied such accusations.
The relations between France and Rwanda slightly improved after incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron set up a commission to determine the role of France in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
