IRMCT Prosecution Requests Félicien Kabuga’s Transfer to Rwanda

In 2023, the IRMCT Appeals Chamber halted proceedings against Kabuga, ruling that his health condition made him unfit to stand trial. Since then, he has remained in detention in The Hague, Netherlands.

On September 9, 2025, Prosecutor Serge Brammertz noted that despite Kabuga’s complaints that his continued detention violates his basic rights, the European countries he had sought to relocate to all refused to host him.

“Two years later, Kabuga remains in confusion, still protesting that his detention infringes on his fundamental rights. European countries he preferred have declined to accept him, and the Netherlands has made it clear that he cannot be released on its territory. Rwanda is prepared to host him while safeguarding his rights,” Brammertz stated.

The prosecution stressed that there are no legitimate concerns about transferring Kabuga to Rwanda, emphasizing that his health needs will be managed during the transfer and that Rwanda has pledged to uphold his rights and freedoms.

Kabuga, once a prominent businessman in Rwanda, was accused of being a key financier of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Charges against him included importing large quantities of machetes used in the killings, committing genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, and persecution.

He was arrested in France on May 16, 2020, after 26 years on the run, and transferred to The Hague in October 2020 to stand trial before the IRMCT.

While the tribunal suspended his trial, it clarified that this decision neither acquitted him nor confirmed his guilt regarding the charges.