International justice says that Félicien Kabuga is fit to be tried for the Rwandan genocide

MADRID, 14 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The International Criminal Courts (MTPI) have assured this Monday that the millionaire Félicien Kabuga is fit to be tried for the genocide in Rwanda, contrary to what his lawyer has been saying for months, his state of health does not prevent him from being tried.

Kabuga is considered the main financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and one of the most wanted individuals for these events.

The judges acknowledge that Kabuga, 87, is "fragile" and "suffering from various physical illnesses, as well as vascular lesions in the brain." But based on the various reports that have been prepared for them, the judges maintain that Félicien Kabuga's cognitive impairment remains "slight" and can be judged, as reported by the RFI station.

The judges have requested that periodic medical examinations be established by three doctors who must submit a report every six months to certify their fitness to stand trial.

Likewise, the Justice has decided to keep Félicien Kabuga detained in The Hague, where he will also be tried initially and they have ruled out the option of a transfer to Arusha, Tanzania, because it could delay the trial.

Three years ago he was arrested in Asnires del Seine in France, where he lived under a false identity, in a "sophisticated and coordinated operation, with simultaneous searches in several places." The tycoon was wanted by Interpol by order of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which accuses him of seven counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for genocide.

The suspect, an ethnic Hutu businessman, is accused of financing the militias that carried out the massacre of nearly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over a period of one hundred days in 1994. He was also the president of the management committee of Radio Televisión Libre. of the Thousand Hills (RTLM), considered "the voice of genocide".

Kabuga is accused of financing the massacre and importing large quantities of machetes from China which were then used by the Interahamwe militia to execute their victims. This wealthy Hutu businessman, a friend of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, was indicted in 1997 on seven counts: complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and persecution and extermination related to mass murder. of moderate Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda.

The roots of the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis go back several generations, but the genocide was unleashed after the death of President Habyarimana, the victim of the downing of his presidential plane with a missile on April 6, 1994. After the president's death, the Interahamwe militia He launched a campaign of executions that lasted for 100 days, on many occasions tearing his victims to pieces in their homes, in churches, soccer stadiums or on barricades.

Mass graves are still being discovered to this day, especially since convicts who have served their sentences have provided information about where they buried or abandoned their victims.