French court blocks extradition of key genocide suspect to ICTR

The French Supreme court has turned down the request to extradite key Genocide suspect Dominique Ntawukuriryayo to the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The French lower court had earlier ruled that Ntawukuriryayo, 65, be extradited to the ICTR. Ntawukuriryayo is accused of having taken part in the massacre of Tutsis from April to July of 1994. He is charged of having used his authority as a regional official to order aides to carry out killings, including a massacre at Bisesero hill. He is also accused of having coordinated the killing of up to 30,000 Tutsis in the former Kibuye province.Jean Bosco Mutangana, the spokesman for Prosecution, said that Rwanda’s main concern is to have justice respected. Justice should prevail in this trial no matter where the case is being heard from, Mutangana said When contacted, Rwanda’s Special Envoy to the ICTR, Aloys Mutabingwa said that Rwanda is deeply concerned and wishes that proper justice is provided in this case. He said: I am trying to read the ruling very carefully and analyse it so that I can advise the prosecutor accordingly. However, the procedures of how to extradite him should not at all obstruct justice; he is an ICTR inductee and has to be transferred and tried. The ruling by the French Supreme Court meant that the case will return to a lower court, which will be asked to review the case once again. Ntawukuriryayo, who has French residency papers, has denied charges that he took part in the Tutsi Genocide that claimed over a million lives. He was arrested in the southern French town of Carcassonne last October. In September, a Paris Appeals court ordered the release of Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former government official who are commonly known of having spearheaded the 1994 Genocide. Last year, Munyeshyaka was tried in absentia alongside Maj. Gen Laurent Munyakazi on the killings of hundreds of people who had sought refuge at St Famille Church. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. The development comes just days after the arrest of ex-FAR Lt. Col. Marcel Bivugabagabo in France. He is accused of six counts related genocide, was a director of operations in the former prefectures of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi during the Genocide. A total of five Rwandans are currently under French custody but only Bivugabagabo and Kamali’s extradition have been finalized. The other three; Laurent Bucyibaruta, Munyeshyaka, and Ntawukuriryayo were all arrested on ICTR warrants.Ends

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French court blocks extradition of key genocide suspect to ICTR