The court on Thursday May 21, decided to delay until next week the hearing on whether to hand Kabuga to the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals based at The Hague.
Reports by AP say Kabuga’s defence lawyer Laurent Bayon said in a statement to the court that Kabuga wished to be tried in France, citing health reasons.
Earlier, Serge Brammerzt the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT or Mechanism) had filed an urgent motion before Judge Carmel Agius, President of the UN Tribunal, to have Kabuga temporarily transferred to its branch at The Hague instead of Arusha, in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic challenges.
In a letter dated May 20, chief prosecutor Brammertz asked the Mechanism to pursue an urgent amendment of Kabuga’s arrest warrant for the transfer to be carried out, signalling that the suspect’s trial is most likely going to be held in the Netherlands, at the Mechanism’s Appeals chamber in The Hague.
Kabuga’s defence lawyers, Mr Bayon and Emmanuel Altit, said in a statement that their client was wished to be tried in France on grounds of ill-health and was opposed to his transfer to the IRMCT in Arusha.
