Rwanda’s notorious genocide suspect Félicien Kabuga may have been freed early by the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).
But his freedom hasn’t actually come as he remains detained at the temporary facility even after he was found unfit for trial, last year.
A panel of 20 judges of the Mechanism, formed as a conclusion institution for various UN-endorsed tribunals on various past conflicts around the world, were last week holding a two-day plenary meeting in Arusha, Tanzania seeking a final solution on the matter, among other issues.
Kabuga, 89, remains detained at the UN Detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands, even though he is not awaiting trial, or relocation to a new prison as is the case with those found guilty.
His final shelter depends on which country agrees to host him. At the Plenary meeting from February 26, the judges directed the Registrar of MICT to continue seeking possible hosts.
During the meeting, judges were informed that all the nine countries that were approached to offer him a home in South America and Europe rejected the requests.
Kabuga was one of the most wanted suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in which more than one million people died.
But he had been on the run for many years, slipping through a global search, until May 2020 when he was arrested in France.
Mr Kabuga was indicted in 1997 on seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination.
Kabuga already told MICT officials he doesn’t want to go back to Rwanda where he was accused of fueling the genocide.
It is reported that the ageing and ailing suspect has flatly rejected going back to Rwanda where he is entitled to go as a right of return since its his country of birth.
He cannot be taken back to France where he was arrested since he was an illegal immigrant. He was nabbed on May 16, 2020 near Paris by French authorities following a joint investigation with the Mechanism office of the prosecutor ending his twenty-six years on the run.
In an earlier media briefing in Kigali, government Spokesperson Yolande Makolo was non-committal. “We will cross that bridge when we reach there,” she told The EastAfrican.
“But, we’ve worked with the tribunal since its establishment and if there’s something to be worked out, we will work out together,” Ms Makolo said.
Kigali, she said, respects the decision of the MICT but remains disappointed.
“It’s unfortunate especially for the victims. It would look like he has gotten away with very serious crimes that he is suspected having committed.”
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunal-MICT is looking for a country that will accept his early release using the provided mechanism by the court statutes.
The only way a detainee can be released is by way of temporary release, say, on medical grounds on condition that if he recovers, he can go back to detention.
MICT could also find that, owing to a person’s deteriorating condition, he can spend his last days with his family members.
Efforts by Kabuga to fight his handover to the Mechanism were thwarted after his appeal was rejected by French Court 30th September 2020.
In October his case was assigned to a Trial Chamber presided over by Judge Lain Bonomy who was Presiding, Graciela Susana Gatti Santana as president and judge Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya, for hand-over to the custody of the Arusha branch of the Mechanism.
In June 2023, UN Court of Appeal judges directed that the war crimes trial for the suspect be suspended because of his failing health but indicated that alternative procedures should take place.
Kabuga, a once powerful business mogul is one of the last suspects sought by the international criminal tribunal prosecuting felonies against humanity committed in the April 1994 over 100 days.
Rwanda will be commemorating 30th anniversary of the deadly genocide in April.
