France to transfer Rwanda genocide suspect to war crimes court
PARIS (AFP) — A Rwandan genocide suspect arrested in France will be handed over to the war crimes tribunal in Arusha after the European rights court refused to block his transfer, his lawyer said Friday.
Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, a former sub-prefect, is accused by prosecutors of the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of taking part in the massacre of thousands of Tutsis from April to July of 1994.
France's highest court of appeal earlier this month had turned down his request to block the extradition to Tanzania, prompting Ntawukuriryayo to turn to the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.
Lawyer Thierry Massis told AFP that his client will be handed over to the ICTR in Arusha before June 7. He is currently detained in a prison near Paris.
Ntawukuriryayo, 65, was arrested in October in Carcassonne, southwest France, where he had been living since 1999, and will be the first Rwandan genocide suspect to be transferred from France to the ICTR since 2000.
Prosecutors charge Ntawukuriryayo used his authority as a regional official to order aides to carry out killings, including a massacre near Gisagara in southern Rwanda where thousands of Tutsis had gathered and were told they would be safe.
Ntawukuriryayo, who has French residency papers, has denied charges he took part in the genocide in which some 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were killed.
His lawyer had argued that the ICTR, struggling to close a backlog of cases by the end of 2008, would eventually hand the former regional official to Rwandan authorities.
