Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman accused of financing and encouraging the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsis, died in custody in The Hague at the age of 91, the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals announced on Saturday.
Death in detention
Kabuga died while hospitalized in The Hague, and the medical officer of the UN Detention Unit was immediately notified, according to a court statement. An investigation has been ordered to determine the circumstances of his death.
Unfit for trial
In 2023, judges declared Kabuga unfit to continue standing trial due to dementia. They established a procedure to continue hearing evidence without the possibility of convicting him. He remained in detention pending resolution of his provisional release to a willing state. His lawyer stated he would not return to Rwanda, fearing mistreatment.
The declaration angered many genocide survivors in Rwanda, who believed his crimes deserved the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Background of the case
An arrest warrant for Kabuga was issued in 2013, with a $5 million bounty. He was arrested in France in 2020, and his trial began in 2022. He faced charges of genocide, incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution, extermination, and murder. He pleaded not guilty.
The genocide began on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down. Kabuga's daughter married Habyarimana's son.
