Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) has set February 3 as a day for holding a status conference regarding Felician Kabuga’s health and fitness to stand trial regarding Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Kabunga is accused of perpetrating the genocide.
Judge Lain Bonomy, the pre-trial judge decided in Arusha on Wednesday that the conference would be held before the full trial chamber at 2.00pm in the courtroom of The Hague Branch of the Mechanism, Netherlands.
He ordered that the parties should be prepared to discuss Kabuga’s health and fitness for him to be transferred to the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha, Tanzania, to stand trial with a view to enabling the trial chamber to make the final decision thereon.
The operative indictment against Kabuga was confirmed by the then International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on April 13, 2011.
Following his arrest in France on May 16, last year, Kabuga was temporarily transferred on October 26, 2020 to the United Nations Detention Unit at the Hague Branch of the Mechanism (UNDU).
He has been there for a detailed medical assessment to determine whether and under what circumstances he may be safely transferred to the Arusha Branch of the Mechanism for trial.
Kabuga’s initial appearance took place in person on November 11, last year at the Hague Branch.
Pursuant to Rule 69(A) of the Rules, a status conference has to be convened within 120 days of the initial appearance of the accused, and thereafter within 120 days of the last status conference, to organise exchanges between the parties, review the status of the case and to allow the accused an opportunity to raise issues in relation thereto, including their mental and physical conditions.
Prosecutor is Mr Serge Brammertz while Mr Emmanuel Altit is defence counsel of the accused person.
Kabuga, who is alleged to have been a leading figure in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, was arrested in Paris by French authorities on Friday as a result of a joint investigation with the IRMCT’s Office of the Prosecutor.
He was indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1997 on seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination, all in relation to crimes committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Mechanism was established by the UN Security Council Resolution 1966 (2010) to complete the remaining work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that closed in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
The Mechanism has two branches, one in Arusha, Tanzania, and another in The Hague, Netherlands.
