Rwanda genocide survivors slam UN judges’ call to halt trial of suspect Kabuga

Survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have criticized United Nations court’s call to halt the trial of the nearly 90-year-old Felicien Kabuga, an alleged financier and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect’s ill health.

In June, judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals halted Kabuga’s trial because he has dementia and could not properly participate in the proceedings. Appeals judges threw out a decision Monday (7 August) by a UN court to set up a procedure for hearing evidence against the elderly Rwandan genocide suspect who was declared unfit to face trial. The decision likely means that Kabuga’s trial, which started in The Hague in 2022, will never be completed. The judges acknowledged this would be a blow to victims and survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have slammed the appeals judges’ call at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt Kabuga’s trial. The Monday ruling sends the case back to the court’s trial chamber with instructions to impose a stay on proceedings, which likely means that 90-year-old suspect will not be prosecuted. Appeals judges at the court also rejected a proposal to set up an alternative procedure that would have allowed evidence to be heard but without the possibility of a verdict. The UN court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said the ruling “must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying”. “It’s extremely disturbing on the side of survivors, who will see Kabuga walking free. Justice should be felt by those wronged,” one of the genocide survivors said.