AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
A former Rwandan military official who is suspected of having played a key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide was arrested in the Netherlands on Tuesday, Dutch prosecutors said.
Pierre-Claver Karangwa, 67,
was detained in a Dutch investigation into his role in the genocide, which
prosecutors started after the Dutch Supreme Court in June this year said he
could not be extradited to Rwanda out of fear of an unfair trial.
Rwanda has accused Karangwa of
playing a key role in the massacre of nearly 30,000 Tutsis in Mugina parish
near the Rwandan capital Kigali in April 1994 and had asked for his extradition
in 2012.
In a court case over his
possible extradition in December 2022, Karangwa said he was innocent of the
crimes he was accused of.
Karangwa, who has lived in the
Netherlands since 1998, had his Dutch nationality revoked over the genocide
accusations, theoretically paving the way for his extradition.
But the Supreme Court denied
this because of Karangwa's position as an opposition politician.
The Dutch prosecutors said
they suspected Karangwa of being involved in burning down a house with dozens
of women and children in it following the attack on Mugina parish.
An estimated 800,000 ethnic
Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed during Rwanda's genocide, orchestrated by
an extremist Hutu government and executed by local officials and ordinary
citizens.
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