A United Nations court has declared that an 88-year-old Félicien Kabuga, accused of being a significant financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, is not fit to stand trial.
Félicien Kabuga’s defense lawyers had presented arguments stating that he suffers from dementia.
After evading capture for 26 years, Kabuga was apprehended in Paris in 2020, reportedly having moved around various locations in East Africa during that time. He stands accused of providing financial support to ethnic Hutu militias responsible for the brutal killings of approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Kabuga has consistently denied these charges.
This ruling marks the first instance where a court has made such a decision in the long-standing effort to hold Rwandan genocide suspects accountable for their actions.
The judges presiding over the UN war crimes court in The Hague have ruled that Mr. Félicien Kabuga is incapable of actively participating in his trial and is highly unlikely to regain fitness in the future. In light of this, they have proposed an alternative legal procedure that closely resembles a trial but does not allow for a conviction.
In March, the court had temporarily halted Mr. Kabuga’s trial to facilitate a thorough assessment of his health. While his age is subject to some dispute, court documents state that he is 88 years old.
It is alleged that Mr. Kabuga utilized his significant fortune amassed from the tea trade in the 1970s to purchase machetes, which were subsequently distributed to Hutu death squads. Additionally, as a wealthy businessman, he stands accused of using his radio station to broadcast inflammatory hate speech, urging Hutus to carry out acts of violence against Tutsis and exacerbating the genocide.
After years of evading capture, French investigators eventually located Mr. Kabuga residing in an apartment in Paris under a false identity. The United States had previously offered a reward of $5 million (£4.1 million) for information leading to his arrest.