Rwanda issues int’l arrest warrant against ex-intelligence chief for genocide crimes

Kigali, Rwanda | XINHUA | Rwanda has issued an international arrest warrant against the former military intelligence chief due to genocide crimes, an official said on Wednesday.

Rwanda has investigated Aloys Ntiwiragabo, who had been identified by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as one of the architects of 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsi that claimed over 1 million lives, mainly ethnic Tutsis, hence deciding to issue the warrant, spokesman of the National Public Prosecution Authority Faustin Nkusi told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

The central African country is working with a French unit in charge of combating war crimes and crimes against humanity to arrest the suspect, Nkusi said, without divulging details of the charges.

Rwanda has over the years issued over 1,000 international warrants and indictments against genocide suspects worldwide, he said.

The warrant came after the arrest of a top Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga in May, who had been at large for more than two decades. A French court later ruled that Kabuga should be transferred to UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) based in Arusha, Tanzania, which started assuming responsibility for the ICTR’s residual functions in 2012.

Visiting chief prosecutor of Mechanism, Serge Brammertz on Tuesday told reporters in Kigali that a team of UN prosecutors and investigators had arrived in Rwanda to gather fresh evidence to update Kabuga’s case file.

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XINHUA