By Spy Uganda
Paris, France: French lawyer Laurent Bayon, who is counsel for Rwandan fugitive genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga has opposed a proposal to transfer Kabuga from French custody into the hands of the United Nations (UN) tribunal in Tanzania.
Kabuga,
indicted on charges of genocide related to the 1994 Rwandan massacre of over 800,000 people, appeared before a French
court on Wednesday, four days after his arrest following a quarter of a century
on the run.
In his first
appearance in public in more than 20 years, the octogenarian was brought into
the court in a wheelchair, dressed in jeans and a blue jumper and wearing a
face mask.
Kabuga is
accused of bankrolling and arming the ethnic Hutu militias that waged the
100-day killing spree against Rwanda’s Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Rwanda’s
most wanted fugitive, Kabuga was arrested
on Saturday in a Paris suburb.
His lawyers
said in a statement before the hearing that Kabuga had the right to be presumed
innocent and opposed being transferred from France to a United Nations tribunal
that handles crimes against humanity based in Tanzania.
Defence
lawyer Bayon told the court Kabuga wished to be tried in France.
The court
will decide whether to hand Kabuga to the UN International Residual Mechanism
for Criminal Tribunals. The international court is based in The Hague, the
Netherlands and Arusha, Tanzania.
The IRMCT’s
chief prosecutor told the media that the court had already requested Kabuga be
transferred to UN custody.
Kabuga’s
voice was weak, but audible, as he confirmed through an interpreter his
identity and parents’ names. He gave his date of birth as March 1, 1933. (capitalfoodservices.com)
Kabuga’s
arrest marked the end of a more than 20 years long hunt that spanned Africa and
Europe.
A one-time
tea and coffee tycoon, he is accused of being the main financier of the
genocide, paying for the militias that carried out the massacres, as well as
importing huge numbers of machetes, according to the UN tribunal’s indictment.
He also
co-owned Radio Television Milles Collines, whose radio station broadcast
anti-Tutsi messages that fanned the ethnic hatred.
The United
States had placed a $5m reward on his head prior to his arrest.
The French
court granted a request by the defence to defer the hearing and set the next
date for May 27.
Exiting the
courtroom, Kabuga raised his fist as several relatives including one son voiced
encouragement.
