Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was on Saturday arrested in Paris region, the French justice ministry and the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals announced.
"The arrest of Felicien Kabuga today is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be brought to account, even 26 years after their crimes," said Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of The Hague-based Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).
Kabuga 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.
Patched ties
Rwanda government has for long accused the French government of complicity in the Genocide and of frustrating justice for the victims since many of the suspects fled to the European country when the government of Juvenal Habyarimana fell.
It is not yet clear if Kabuga will be extradited to Rwanda to face justice but Brammertz suggested that following completion of appropriate procedures under French law, the suspect will be transferred to the custody of the Mechanism, where he will stand trial.
