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Genocide suspect transferred to UN tribunal

[Tanzania] Arusha: ICTR Building Northern Tanzania IRIN
The tribunal's building in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
    NAIROBI

    A former mayor suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was transferred on Wednesday to the Tanzania-based UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) after his arrest in Uganda, the tribunal reported.

    In a statement, the tribunal said that Juvenal Rugambarara, a former mayor of Bicumi Commune in Kigali Rural Province, was in the ICTR detention facility in the northeastern town of Arusha, awaiting trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.

    Rugambarara, a physician by profession, is due to make an initial appearance before a judge on Friday, the tribunal said. He faces nine charges that include genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to commit genocide and three counts of crimes against humanity.

    He became the Bicumbi mayor in 1993. He allegedly "ordered, instigated, encouraged, aided and abetted the preparation and execution" of crimes against ethnic Tutsis in Bicumbi during the April-June 1994 genocide.

    The tribunal reported that Rugambarara's arrest brings to 56 the number of people in its custody.

    The UN Security Council established the tribunal in 1995 to bring to trial alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. The court has so far handed down 12 convictions and one acquittal.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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