The alleged financier of the Rwandan genocide Félicien Kabuga, arrested on Saturday after 25 years on the run, was presented to the Paris public prosecutor's office on Tuesday, a prelude to the debate on his return to international justice, according to concordant sources.
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Three days after his arrest in the Paris suburbs, Félicien Kabuga, 84, was transported at midday from the Health prison, where he is detained, to the Paris Court of Appeal. There, he was presented to a general lawyer who must notify him of the arrest warrant of the International Mechanism (MTPI), the structure responsible for completing the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Félicien Kabuga is indicted by this entity for, in particular, " genocide ", " direct and public incitement to commit genocide " and " crimes against humanity (persecution and extermination) ". At the end of this stage, Félicien Kabuga must appear before the instruction chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, responsible for verifying the validity of this mandate and for issuing an opinion favorable or not to its delivery to the MTPI . She will also have to decide whether or not to keep her in detention.
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The hearing should be held Wednesday, or May 27 if the defense requests a delay. The chamber will then have two weeks to decide. In the event of an opinion favorable to this surrender, Félicien Kabuga could still appeal to the Court of Cassation, which will have two months to decide. Félicien Kabuga, who resided in Asnières-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) under a false identity, is notably accused of having created the Interahamwe militias, the main armed arms of the 1994 genocide which killed 800,000 people according to the UN.
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In 1994, Félicien Kabuga belonged to the inner circle of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana whose assassination, on April 6, 1994, would trigger the genocide. He chaired the infamous Thousand Hills Free Radio and Television (RTLM), which broadcast calls for the Tutsi murders, and the National Defense Fund (FDN), which collected " funds " to finance the logistics and weapons of Hutu militiamen. Interahamwe, according to the indictment of the ICTR. The arrest " is a reminder that those responsible for genocide can be held accountable, even 26 years after their crimes, " MTPI prosecutor Serge Brammertz said on Saturday in a statement.