Felicien Kabuga arrested: French police arrested Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga on Saturday.
The 84-year-old had been pursued by international justice for 25 years over crimes allegedly commited during the 1994 genocide.
The French Justice Ministry said gendarmes arrested him at 0530 GMT on Saturday. He had been living under an assumed name in a flat in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, near Paris.
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. His son-in-law was arrested in Germany in 2007.
French gendarmes arrested him at 05.30am local time on Saturday, the ministry said.
“The arrest of Félicien Kabuga today is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be brought to account, even twenty-six years after their crimes,” The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said on Saturday.
“Our first thoughts must be with the victims and survivors of the Rwandan genocide. Advocating on their behalf is an immense professional honor for my entire Office.”
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The operation to arrest Kabuga, who is alleged to have been a leading figure in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, was run by French authorities in conjunction with the IRMCT. The body exists to complete the remaining work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Many days for the thief, one day for the owner. Even after 26 years of on the run.