Rwandan ‘genocide financier’ unfit for trial and charges should be dropped, lawyers say
- Felicien Kabuga, 84, allegedly helped set up hate media that urged ethnic Hutus to ‘kill the Tutsi cockroaches’ in 1994
- He was arrested in France last May and transferred to The Hague in October to answer to charges of playing a key role in the killings of 800,000 people
Lawyers representing the alleged financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Felicien Kabuga, have requested that charges against him be dropped on the grounds he is unfit for trial.
In a May 6 filing to the UN court’s branch in Tanzania, lawyer Emmanuel Altit said that medical reports prove that his 84-year-old client could not withstand trial.
“Pursuing the case under these conditions would constitute a serious breach of Felicien Kabuga’s rights and would put into question the fairness of the trial,” the document, seen by AFP on Sunday, states.
“The court and the parties involved now have enough evidence to rule that the case must be stopped,” the lawyer added.
Altit asked that in the event the court rejects his motion for dismissal, Kabuga should be freed on bail.
Once one of Rwanda’s richest men, Kabuga allegedly helped set up hate media that urged ethnic Hutus to “kill the Tutsi cockroaches” and funded militia groups.
