Ultimately, no. No trial against Félicien Kabuga, the financier of the Rwandan genocide. On June 6, 2023, the magistrates responsible for the cases of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) decided, unanimously, on the advice of doctors, not to try Félicien Kabuga. So no trial. The reason ? The state of health of the financier of the Rwandan genocide would be precarious. Which ? Madness. After years of playing hide and seek with the law, he’s not doing so badly, in the end. He has a hell of a vein, the bugger.
The charges persist; they still remain. But… No trial against Félicien Kabuga, the financier of the Rwandan genocide. Indeed, in the dock, he was waiting to see if the magistrates would confirm the charges of war crimes against him. Unexpectedly, they deemed him “unfit”. A nonagenarian suffering from dementia benefits from a mitigating circumstance. For the bowl, he has some. Therefore, he escapes life imprisonment. I imagine the feelings of the victims.
90-year-old Félicien Kabuga is said to be suffering from dementia due to a heart attack. Unable to be judged, he will nevertheless be imprisoned. No trial against Félicien Kabuga, the financier of the Rwandan genocide. Are the magistrates waiting for a miracle? The chances for the latter to find his phlegm of the 90s is more than unlikely, given his age.
Twenty-nine years ago, part of the Rwandan population, the Hutus, helped by the national army and self-defense groups, the Interahamwe militia, embarked on a wave of extermination worthy of the horror film by James DeMonaco , Americain Nightmare. This open hunt for Tutsis claimed, according to sources, between 800,000 and 1 million victims. To carry out such a murderous offensive, quite substantial financial and material resources were needed. On everyone’s lips, a name keeps coming back: Félicien Kabuga.
Arrest of Félicien Kabuga in May 2020
After years of tracking, Félicien Kabuga was arrested in May 2020 by the French police. He was hiding in the nose and beard of the police and intelligence services from around the world in Asnières-sur-Seine, in the Paris suburbs. He lived peacefully with one of his sons. It is, quite by chance, on reading his medical file, that we will end up locating him. All these years he hadn’t even deigned to change his name, like a fugitive would.
According to several reports, this former businessman is the one who provided the logistics. On the run since 94, he was caught by the French police to be brought before the courts. After the exaltations of joys of victims, place to anger. The man, accused in particular of crimes against humanity, suffers from vascular dementia cannot be judged. Consternation among the victims. The former businessman will be under medical supervision. On the other hand, Félicien Kabuga has a registration number. From now on, it is known under the identifier: KABUGA, Félicien (MICT-13-38).
The feelings of the victims
So, would there be no verdict in this case? Indeed, this is where we are headed. What will posterity remember? For Lewis Mudge, director for Central Africa of the NGO Human Rights Watch, it is ” a failure of justice “. We expected more than that. Isn’t there already a case against him? However, most of the testimonies incriminate him without a shadow of a doubt. That he doesn’t have all his head changes what? We are certain when during the crimes which go back almost thirty years, the man was at this period of his life in possession of all his mental faculties. What about the families waiting for justice to be done? Finally, justice must be done. Also it is not the old man of today who is in question. But the adult in full possession of his mental faculties who decided in 1994 to exterminate an entire people.