UN appeal judges have ordered the war crimes trial for 90-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga indefinitely suspended because he has dementia, rejecting plans for an alternative slimmed-down procedure.
The decision taken on Monday likely means that Kabuga’s trial, which started last year in The Hague, will not be completed.
In June, judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals ruled Kabuga unfit to stand trial, but said alternative procedures should take place. Prosecutors had argued halting the trial would be unfair to the victims and said Kabuga’s own actions put him in the position of facing trial at an advanced age with diminished capacity.
The former businessman, who made his fortune in the tea trade, is one of the last suspects sought by the tribunal prosecuting crimes committed in the 1994 genocide when members of the country’s Hutu majority killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.
Prosecutors said the genocide charges covered rapes, sexual assaults, and killings.
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