Rwanda genocide suspect Kabuga dead

Félicien Kabuga during his Initial Appearance at The Hague on November 11, 2020. [Hondebrink-Hermer/UN]

A suspect in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, accused of masterminding a notorious radio station that urged on the brutal massacres, died Saturday, according to the international court in The Hague where he had faced trial.

Felicien Kabuga, who was in his 90s, died in hospital earlier Saturday, said the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in a statement.

Presiding judge Graciela Gatti Santana has ordered a full inquiry into the circumstances of Kabuga's death.

Once one of the world's most-wanted fugitives, Kabuga was often referred to as the man who financed the massacre of some 800,000 people in Rwanda between April and June 1994.

He was arrested in 2020 in France and transferred to The Hague, where his trial started two years later.

He was charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to genocide, as well as crimes against humanity including extermination and murder.

Prosecutors accused Kabuga, once one of Rwanda's richest men, of being the driving force behind Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which urged ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis with machetes.

Kabuga pleaded not guilty.

In 2023, judges halted the trial, deeming the wheelchair-bound Kabuga "unfit to participate meaningfully" in proceedings.

He was however ordered to remain detained awaiting provisional release.

At the time of his death, he was awaiting release to a country willing to take him.