Rwanda genocide suspect Kabuga arrested in Paris region after 25 years

[May 16, 2020]  By Dominique Vidalon and Elias Biryabarema

PARIS (Reuters) - Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of funding militias that massacred about 800,000 people, was arrested on Saturday near Paris after 25 years on the run, the French justice ministry said.

The 84-year-old, who is Rwanda's most-wanted man and had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was living under a false identity in a flat in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, according to the ministry.

French gendarmes arrested him at 0530 GMT on Saturday, the ministry said.

A Hutu businessman, he is accused of funding the militias that massacred some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over a span of 100 days in 1994.

"Since 1994, Felicien Kabuga, known to have been the financier of Rwanda genocide, had with impunity stayed in Germany, Belgium, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya, or Switzerland,"

the statement said.

The arrest paves the way for bringing the fugitive in front of the Paris Appeal Court and later to the international court in The Hague, it added.

Kabuga was indicted on genocide charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Pictures of the Rwandan Genocide victims donated by survivors are displayed at an exhibition at the Genocide Memorial in Gisozi in Kigali, Rwanda April 6, 2019.REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Two other Rwandan genocide suspects, Augustin Bizimana and Protais Mpiranya, are still being pursued by international justice.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Editing by Frances Kerry and Ros Russell)

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