On March 15, 2023 in The Hague in the Netherlands, one of the three experts who believes that businessman Félicien Kabuga is not fit to stand trial was questioned by the International Mechanism that replaced the Criminal Court. international for Rwanda. These hearings will continue until the end of the month on the state of health of the man who is considered to be the financier of the genocide of Tutsis in 1994.
With our correspondent in The Hague, Stephanie Maupas
Félicien Kabuga would be unfit to stand trial: these are the conclusions of three experts mandated by the United Nations (UN) Mechanism responsible for trying the former Rwandan businessman.
On trial since September, he must answer for genocide and crimes against humanity. But the hearing of witnesses in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is currently suspended due to the declining health of the accused, 89 years old according to his own statements.
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The judges summoned the three experts who will have to testify by March 30, 2023 at the bar of the court. Two professors of forensic psychiatry and a neurologist will have to answer questions from judges and lawyers by March 30. In a report submitted at the beginning of the month, these three experts believe that Félicien Kabuga is not fit to stand trial. So the judges want to know more.
The Rwandan businessman suffers from memory, reasoning and communication disorders, and a deterioration of his condition, explained at the bar, this March 15, 2023, the first expert, Irish professor Henry Kennedy . At the end of these interrogations, the judges hope to find a way out of the impasse in which this trial has found itself, punctuated since its opening by the state of health of the accused.
The presiding judge notably questioned the expert on the possibility of conducting the trial without the accused, of recording the evidence and testimony in his absence. But for Professor Kennedy, Félicien Kabuga would not be able today to understand the evidence.
Félicien Kabuga attended the hearing by videoconference from the prison’s hospital unit. He appeared quickly on the screens in the courtroom, sporting a beard of several days.
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