Rwandan genocide suspect Kabuga, 93, dies in custody


FILE PHOTO: Eric Emeraux, head of the Gendarmerie's Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes (OCLCH), diplays documents with a wanted poster depicting a photograph of Felicien Kabuga during an interview with Reuters at his office, about the arrest of Rwandan genocide fugitive suspect Felicien Kabuga, in Paris, France, May 19, 2020. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

THE HAGUE, May ⁠16 (Reuters) - Lucien Kabuga, a suspect in the ⁠1994 Rwanda genocide, has died in custody, ‌a U.N. court said on Saturday. He was 93.

Kabuga was arrested in France in 2020 after more than ​two decades on the run and ⁠extradited to The ⁠Hague. He was later ruled unfit to stand ⁠trial because ‌of dementia and was also deemed too ill to return to Rwanda.

With ⁠no country willing to accept him, Kabuga ​remained in ‌the U.N. detention centre in The Hague. ⁠The court ​said it had ordered an inquiry into the circumstances of his death.

The former businessman and radio ⁠station owner was among the ​last fugitives sought over the genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 Tutsis and ⁠moderate Hutus in 100 days.

Prosecutors accused Kabuga of promoting hate speech through his broadcaster Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines and of helping ​arm ethnic Hutu militias.

The court ⁠that announced his death, the Mechanism for International ​Criminal Tribunals, oversees remaining cases ‌from the former U.N. tribunals ​for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling. Editing by Mark Potter)

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