Félicien Kabuga, the last judgment

Special focus 15 publications
Félicien Kabuga played the last of the great roles in the most litigated genocide in history: after having been the last of the great fugitives for a long time, he came to close the proceedings of the UN tribunal in charge of trying those responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis of Rwanda, perpetrated in 1994. The man who at one time had the reputation of being the richest man in Rwanda was already very old and ill. His trial opened in The Hague on 29 September 2022, and proceeded at a fatally slow pace, out of sight, towards an outcome that seemed increasingly uncertain. The former businessman was accused of having financed the Interahamwe militia as well as Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), a private station that called for murder during the massacres. He was charged with genocide, incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. In the end, he would never be tried, the Appeals chamber having concluded in August 2023 that his state of health no longer permitted it, despite the attempts of the prosecutor and trial judges to hold the trial at all costs.
© Elza Montlahuc for JusticeInfo.net
Félicien Kabuga, in a wheelchair, seems to be running away from a huge blood-red 'RTLM' radio set, tuned to the '1994' station. This radio is embedded in the ground and creates a crack that extends to Kabuga. Skulls fill a hole in the depths of this crack and banknotes fly everywhere.
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Kabuga's money - Photo: bundles of banknotes (Rwandan francs)
Will the UN ever recover Kabuga’s money?
7 November 2024 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Bogged down in its proceedings, will the UN Mechanism, the successor to the Tribunal for Rwanda set up thirty years ago, recover Félicien Kabuga’s money one day? Located in France, Belgium and Rwanda thanks to his son, the assets [...]
End of the Kabuga trial - The final curtain has fallen on the trial of Félicien Kabuga. Final curtain falls on Kabuga trial
22 August 2023 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
It's the end of an era: the last major suspect in the 1994 Rwanda genocide will not be tried by international justice. On August 7, the Appeals Chamber of the international Mechanism, which took over from the UN tribunal for Rwand [...]
Félicien Kabuga Has trying Kabuga become absurd?
22 June 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
There were many objections after the decision by the UN Mechanism in charge of trying Rwandan genocide suspect Félicien Kabuga to continue the trial through an undefined and unprecedented “alternative procedure” although he has be [...]
Kabuga trial - Félicien Kabuga, in a wheelchair, seems to be running away from a radio displaying the date of the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis of Rwanda. Banknotes fly around him. Kabuga: heading for a palliative trial?
8 June 2023 by Thierry Cruvellier
According to his judges, Félicien Kabuga can be tried but not convicted. On June 6, a UN tribunal ruled that the Rwandan, aged 88 (or 90, according to him), is no longer fit to stand trial. But instead of suspending the case, the [...]
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Félicien Kabuga is found unfit to participate in his trial by medical experts. He suffers from senile dementia.
4 April 2023 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Doctors say Kabuga trial should be stopped Is Félicien Kabuga, alleged financier of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, fit to stand trial? This question has been raised ever since his arrest. Last week, at the request of the defence, medical experts took the stand to give their [...]
Félicien Kabuga (in wheelchair) behind the UN logo
28 February 2023 by Emmanuel Sehene Ruvugiro
Kabuga trial: for Rwandans, "the old man is still hiding” "Justice administered in the silence of their offices with only them as witnesses to what they’re doing, this is not justice!" This outburst from an official of the victims' association Ibuka sums up the frustration in Rwanda at n [...]
IRMCT security staff in Arusha, Tanzania
16 February 2023 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Kabuga: The lost dream of Arusha’s white elephant The Tanzanian branch of the UN residual "Mechanism" for criminal tribunals has marked ten years of existence in silence and without a trial. That of Félicien Kabuga, which resumes this week, is taking place in The Hague (see box). [...]
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28 November 2022 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Kabuga: Last major trial of the Rwandan genocide behind closed doors Félicien Kabuga’s arrest was announced as a great success and his trial as an important event. But little has been heard about this trial that started on September 29 – for good reason, because the trial of Kabuga, alleged financi [...]
Emmanuel Altit (Defence lawyer) and Rupert Elderkin (prosecutor) discuss at the opening of the trial of Félicien Kabuga.
4 October 2022 by Molly Quell
Waiting for witnesses at Kabuga’s trial Nearly 30 years after some 800,000 civilians were murdered in an attempt to eradicate the Tutsi ethnic minority in Rwanda, the man accused of funding weapons purchases and backing a radio station that spewed genocidal propaganda i [...]
3 lawyers, in robes, are sitting
26 September 2022 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Kabuga trial to start amid defence conflict The long-awaited trial of Félicien Kabuga, alleged mastermind of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, is due to start on September 29 in The Hague. However, the accused is appearing with a lawyer he has been rejecting for almost two years. [...]
Félicien Kabuga during a (remote) hearing of his trial
16 May 2022 by Balthazar Nduwayezu
Kabuga: Still no trial two years after his arrest The trial of Félicien Kabuga, octogenarian alleged mastermind of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was initially announced for the end of 2021, but it has not begun and no one can say when it might start. The health of the former busines [...]
Felicien Kabuga before the Mechanism for International Tribunals
30 March 2021 by Ephrem Rugiririza and Emmanuel Sehene Ruvugiro
Why Kabuga is no longer accused of importing machetes for genocide Widely dubbed "the financier of the genocide," Rwandan Félicien Kabuga has carried with him since the 1994 genocide a heavy reputation for ordering machetes used to kill Tutsis. This central charge, however, has disappeared from t [...]
1 October 2020 by Janet H. Anderson
Kabuga’s transfer to the Mechanism: Is it the right thing to do? The surprise arrest in May of an old Rwandan man, soon after the end of lockdown in a chic Paris suburb, is having knock-on consequences. High-profile fugitive Félicien Kabuga has changed overnight the prospects of the “Mechanism” [...]
1 October 2020 by André Guichaoua
Rwanda: what’s at stake in the Kabuga trial What are the consequences of the arrest last May in France of Félicien Kabuga, considered to be one of the main perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide? French sociologist André Guichaoua, a former expert witness for the prosecu [...]
18 May 2020 by Ephrem Rugiririza, Emmanuel Sehene, Franck Petit and Thierry Cruvellier
Félicien Kabuga, 23 years on the run... and what’s next? Félicien Kabuga, the great paymaster of the Rwandan regime in the early 1990s, accused of genocide, was arrested on 16 May in France. For 23 years, he had escaped international justice. His surprise arrest raises many questions. I [...]