Switzerland investigates its role in the Félicien Kabuga case
Published: Tuesday, Feb 27th 2024, 13:20
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The Federal Council will commission a report on Switzerland's role in the Félicien Kabuga case. The latter is suspected of being one of the main masterminds of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which left hundreds of thousands dead.
On Tuesday, the National Council approved a postulate by Christine Badertscher, a Green member of the Bernese National Council, who called for such a report. Badertscher told the Council that she had noticed during a parliamentary visit to the African country that the Kabuga case was still very much on the minds of the Rwandan people.
Kabuga came to Switzerland in 1994, but was not arrested but deported. As the Federal Council wrote last year in a response to an interpellation by Badertscher on this subject, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs "requested" that the Federal Department of Justice and Police consider arresting Kabuga.
However, the latter decided to deport Kabuga. According to the Federal Council, the legal situation for an arrest was different back then than it is today, and those involved at the time were bound by the law in force at the time.
Whether Kabuga's arrest was effectively unjustifiable in light of the legal and factual situation at the time could only be assessed in the context of a detailed historical review. Parliament is now calling for this reappraisal; the Federal Council was in favor of accepting the motion.
Kabuga no longer capable of litigation
Kabuga was able to evade justice for 25 years. He was only arrested in Paris in 2020. Recently, the UN tribunal in The Hague (NL) ruled that Kabuga, who is now 90 years old and facing trial for the crimes committed in Rwanda in 1994, was not fit to stand trial due to dementia.
According to the indictment in The Hague, Kabuga had financed a Hutu militia and equipped it with weapons such as machetes. He also founded a radio and TV station that called for the massacres of the Tutsi minority. At his first appearance in court, Kabuga rejected the charges as "lies".
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