CAPE TOWN, South Africa
Fulgence Kayishema, one of the last fugitives sought over the 1994 Rwanda genocide, will apply for asylum in South Africa, where he has been living for two decades, his lawyer said Tuesday.
South Africa's National
Prosecution Authority (NPA) confirmed in a statement that Kayishema "has
abandoned his bail application and will instead launch an asylum application
today."
"My instructions are to
apply for asylum in the Republic of South Africa which will indeed be attended
to before close of play today," lawyer Juan Smuts told AFP after accused
mass killer Fulgence Kayishema appeared in court in Cape Town.
Smuts said his client
"fears for his life, if and when extradited."
The asylum application is
likely to delay Kayishema's trial and "will suspend his extradition as
envisaged," said the lawyer.
There have not been any formal
extradition requests so far.
Kayishema is described by the
International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) - the successor
to the U.N. court that prosecuted scores of major suspects - as "one of
the world's most wanted genocide fugitives."
Kayishema allegedly took part
in one of the Rwanda genocide's bloodiest episodes,
in which he and others allegedly murdered more than 2,000 men, women and
children who had taken refuge in a Catholic church in Nyange, Kivumu District.
He is one of four remaining
fugitives sought by U.N. investigators for their role in the genocide, was
arrested last month in the town of Paarl in South Africa's Cape Winelands
region.
The 62-year-old, who used many
aliases and false documents during 22 years on the run, faces 54 fraud and
immigration-related charges in South Africa.
But state advocate Nathan
Adriaanse said in court that new evidence has emerged which will result in new
charges being added.
He is expected back in the
Cape Town court on August 18 for what the NPA said was for "further
investigation."
The former Rwandan police
inspector was arrested on May 24 in the small town of Paarl, 60 kilometres (35
miles) north of Cape Town.
The hunt for Kayishema spanned
countries across Africa, according to the MICT.
The United States had offered
up to $5 million reward for information leading to Kayishema's arrest, transfer
or conviction, but there have been no details as to whether this played a role
in the capture.
The MICT in 2015 took over the
work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), set up by the
U.N. after the genocide.
Before handing over the reins,
the ICTR sentenced 62 people, including a 30-year term handed to former
minister Augustin Ngirabatware, and acquitted 14.
Rwanda started trying genocide
suspects in 1996, and on a single day in April 1998 had 22 of them executed by
firing squad.
It abolished the death penalty
in 2007, lifting the main obstacle for the ICTR to extradite genocide suspects
to Rwanda for trial.
Between 2005 and 2012, more
than 12,000 community-based courts put nearly two million people on trial and
convicted 65 percent, sending most to prison.
Around 800,000 Rwandans, most
of them ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered over 100 days at the hands of Hutu
extremists.
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