Kigali welcomes court decision to deport genocide suspect

Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, has said his country welcomes the deportation order the Canadian Supreme Court issued on genocide suspect Leon Mugesera, state-owned Radio Rwanda reported on Wednesday.

The Canadian court voted 8-to-0 to expel Mugesera, a resident of Quebec City since 1993, on the grounds that he promoted hatred, genocide and crimes against humanity, Canadian Press reported. The court said there was well-founded evidence that Mugesera helped to incite the 1994 genocide.

The case against Mugesera hinges upon a speech he gave in Rwanda in 1992 "in which he allegedly called on his Hutu followers to exterminate their Tutsi opponents ", Canadian Press said. In his defence, Mugesera said that his words were misinterpreted and that he was only exhorting Hutus to defend themselves against Tutsi aggression.

Mugesera, a married father of five, was then an adviser to Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death in a plane crash in April 1994 sparked the killing of Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

In an interview with the broadcaster, the prosecutor described the court's decision as a major step in the effort to deport others implicated in the 100-day genocide in 1994, in which the Rwandan government says at least 937,000 people died.

In Belgium, Etienne Nzabonimana and Samuel Ndashyikirwa have been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, Rwandan radio reported on Wednesday. The two brothers were accused of killings in the northeastern Rwandan province of Kibungo. They are awaiting sentencing.