Felicien Kabuga, accused of financing the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, has died in a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) announced on Saturday, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, the mechanism said the medical officer of the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU) was immediately notified, while Dutch authorities launched standard procedures and investigations. required under national law.

It is further said that Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the mechanism, ordered a full investigation into the circumstances of Kabuga’s death, appointing Judge Alphons Orie to conduct the investigation.

Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman, was charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi population. in Rwanda.

The now-disbanded International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) issued an arrest warrant for Kabuga in April 2013.

He was arrested in France in May 2020 and transferred to the mechanism’s Hague branch in October of the same year. His trial began in September 2022.

But in September 2023, the Trial Chamber decided to suspend the proceedings indefinitely, as Kabuga had been deemed unfit to stand trial a month earlier by the Appeals Chamber.

The court ordered that he remain in custody in the UN detention unit, pending a decision on his release.

At the time of his death, he was awaiting parole in a state willing to accept him into its territory.

Born in 1935 in Byumba Prefecture in northern Rwanda, known today as Gicumbi District near the border with Uganda, Kabuga rose from humble circumstances to become one of Rwanda’s richest businessmen.

He was accused of using the wealth of him to help finance the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group, during which an estimated 1 million Tutsis and Hutus were killed in 100 days.

Tom Ndahiro, a Rwanda-based genocide researcher, had previously told Anadolu that Kabuga had played a role in founding the notorious hate broadcaster Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which incited violence against the population. Tutsi.

Source: prizrenpost