THE HAGUE, Netherlands
United Nations judges have
declared an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect unfit to continue to stand trial
because he has dementia and say they will establish a procedure to continue to
hear evidence without the possibility of convicting him.FILE - Family photographs of some of those who died hang on display in an exhibition at the Kigali Genocide Memorial centre in the capital Kigali, Rwanda
The majority decision
published Wednesday by judges at the International Residual Mechanism for
Criminal Tribunals means that no guilty verdict can be reached in the trial
of Félicien
Kabuga, one of the last fugitives charged over the 1994 genocide.
Medical experts who have been
closely monitoring his health in a U.N. detention unit in The Hague say that
the “consequences of dementia deprive Mr. Kabuga of the capabilities necessary
for meaningful participation in a trial” and add that “he will not recover
these capacities because his condition is characterized by progressive and
irreversible decline.”
The 88-year-old is accused of
encouraging and bankrolling Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. His trial began last year,
nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead.Félicien Kabuga
In a written decision, judges
at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said that because
Kabuga “is very unlikely to regain fitness,” it will set up “an alternative
finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without
the possibility of a conviction.”
Kabuga is charged with
genocide, incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide as well
as persecution, extermination and murder. He pleaded not guilty. If he had been
convicted, he would have faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
After years as a fugitive from
international justice, Kabuga, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, was
arrested near Paris in May 2020. He was transferred to The Hague to stand trial
at the residual mechanism, a court that deals with remaining cases from the
now-closed U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the Balkan wars. - Africa
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