Survivors of Rwanda's 1994 genocide criticized on Tuesday a call by appeals judges at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt the trial of an alleged financer and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect's ill health.
The ruling on Monday, August 7, sends the matter back to the court's trial chamber with instructions to impose a stay on proceedings. That likely means that Félicien Kabuga, who is nearly 90, will never be prosecuted.
His trial, which started last year at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, was halted in June because his dementia left him unable to participate in proceedings.
Appeals judges at the court also rejected a proposal to set up an alternative procedure that would have allowed evidence to be heard but without the possibility of a verdict.
The U.N. court´s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said the ruling "must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying."
Kabuga, who was arrested in France in 2020 after years as a fugitive from justice, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda´s Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead.
Kabuga has pleaded not guilty to charges including genocide and persecution. He remains in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague, but could be released as a result of Monday's ruling.
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: Rwanda Genocide’s Survivors Highly Disappointed over UN verdict on Félicien Kabuga){kind=link}
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