Paris - Rwandan genocide fugitive Felicien Kabuga is due to appear before a Paris court on Tuesday, three
days after French police swooped on his hideout in a Paris
suburb, ending a 26-year manhunt.
The 84-year-old is accused of funding militias that
massacred around 800 000 people. He was indicted in 1997 on
seven criminal counts including genocide, all in relation to the
1994 Rwanda genocide.
At Tuesday's hearing, which is procedural, the court will
set out the legal process before passing the case to
investigative judges who will decide whether to hand Kabuga to a
UN court handling alleged crimes against humanity.
At least one France-based genocide victim support group said
it was considering legal action to unearth how Kabuga was able
to go underground in France and what help he had received.
"He was our Klaus Barbie, our (Adolf) Eichmann," said
Etienne Nsanzimana, president of support group Ibuka France,
referring to two prominent Nazi war criminals.
"How did he stay on the run for 26 years? For how many years
was he in France and receiving help to live comfortably. I don't
think it was just his family," Nsanzimana added.
Outside view of La Sante prison, where Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga is being held, according to a source close to the investigation, in Paris, France. Picture: Clotaire Achi/Reuters
Reuters has not been able to find any public comment made by
Kabuga over the years about the charges. French lawyer Emmanuel
Altit, who will be defending Kabuga, did not respond to a
request seeking comment from his client.
Rwanda's two main ethnic groups are the Hutus and Tutsis,
who have historically had an antagonistic relationship and
fought a civil war in the early 1990s.
Kabuga, a Hutu businessman, is accused of funding the
militias that massacred some 800,000 Tutsis and their moderate
Hutu allies over a span of 100 days in 1994.
It is not known when or how Kabuga, who had a $5 million
US bounty on his head, entered France.
France's justice ministry has said he lived under a false
identity in Asnieres-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris.