Rwanda's ambassador to The Netherlands, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has criticised countries that refused to arrest Félicien Kabuga for more than 25 years, as he noted that the saga of his trial is a lesson to the entire international community.
Kabuga is expected to be released from detention after the appeals chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Tribunals (IRMCT) rejected an appeal case filed by prosecutors challenging his "unfitness" to stand trial.
The chamber also quashed the "trial of facts," an alternative procedure that was prescribed by the lower chamber after Kabuga was found to be suffering from "irreversible" dementia.
The trial of facts procedure allows for the presentation of evidence and findings but excludes the possibility of a conviction.
Commenting on the court's decision, Nduhungirehe tweeted:
"The lessons learned from Kabuga's saga is that it showed that the international community, including several European States, allowed this to happen by hiding Félicien Kabuga or refusing to arrest him for more than 25 years."
Highlighting that over the past three decades Rwanda sent more than 1,000 indictments to more than 30 countries regarding the arrest of various genocidaires, he said he was afraid some of them may end up like Kabuga's case "if those countries don't act quickly to ensure that justice is served for the victims and survivors of the 1994 genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi."
Kabuga, 90, a businessman before and during the genocide, is charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, and conspiracy to commit genocide.
Other charges are persecution and extermination, both as crimes against humanity.
Notoriously tagged "the financer of the genocide," Kabuga allegedly provided massive support to the genocide in terms of finance, logistics and moral support.
In earlier court sessions, prosecutors pinned him on providing uniforms, weapons and vehicles to Interahamwe militia, in addition to using Radio RTLM, a media house he owned, to propagate anti-Tutsi propaganda and fuel hatred and killings against them.
