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Félicien Kabuga, the last judgment
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.
Will the UN ever recover Kabuga’s money?
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 of the only defendant called upon to reimburse his defence costs exceed the one million euros […]
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