THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) 鈥 Appeals judges on Monday threw out a decision by a United Nations court to set up a procedure to hear evidence against an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect who was declared unfit to face trial.
The decision likely means that F茅licien Kabuga's trial, which started last year in The Hague, will never be completed. The judges acknowledged this would be a blow to victims and survivors of Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals halted Kabuga's trial in June because he has dementia and could not properly participate in the proceedings.
Kabuga, who is in his late 80s, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda鈥檚 Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead. He is in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague.
After declaring him unfit to stand trial, judges said they would set up 鈥渁n alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction.鈥
Kabuga's lawyers appealed that decision and on Monday an appellate panel ruled that 鈥渘either the Statute nor the jurisprudence of the Mechanism and its predecessor tribunals allows for an 鈥榓lternative finding procedure鈥 in lieu of a trial,鈥 the court said in a statement.
The appeals decision said that the outlines of such a procedure 鈥渁ppear to circumvent statutory guarantees afforded to all accused.鈥 They sent the case back to trial judges with instructions to 鈥渋mpose an indefinite stay of proceedings in view of Mr. Kabuga鈥檚 lack of fitness to stand trial.鈥
After years as a fugitive from international justice, Kabuga, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, was in May 2020. He was transferred to The Hague to stand trial at the residual mechanism, a court that deals with remaining cases from the now-closed U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the Balkan wars.
He pleaded not guilty to charges of genocide, incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide as well as persecution, extermination and murder.
The court said that appeals judges realized that 鈥渧ictims and survivors of the crimes that Mr. Kabuga is charged with have waited long to see justice delivered, and that the inability to complete the trial proceedings in this case, due to Mr. Kabuga鈥檚 lack of fitness to stand trial, must be disappointing.鈥
