Rwanda Genocide Suspect Kabuga 'unfit' For Trial: UN Court

The Hague, June 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2023 ) :A UN court has ruled that ageing Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga is unfit to stand trial, calling instead for an "alternative" legal procedure that would not end in a conviction.

The Hague-based International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said in an order late Tuesday that it "finds... Mr Felicien Kabuga is unfit to participate meaningfully in his trial and is very unlikely to regain fitness in the future".

Judges said they wanted to "adopt an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction.

" This would "ensure respect for his rights" at the same time as achieving the goals of the court, they said.

One judge gave a dissenting opinion.

Kabuga, 90, went on trial in September last year, with prosecutors accusing him of setting up hate media that urged ethnic Hutus to kill rival Tutsis and supplying death squads with machetes.

The businessman refused to appear in court or appear remotely at the start of his trial and has subsequently followed proceedings via video-link from a wheelchair at the court's detention centre.