The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals ruled that an indefinite stay of proceedings was imposed on Félicien Kabuga’s lawsuit, in view of Kabuga’s alleged lack of fitness to stand trial.

 

The Chamber further instructed the Trial Chamber to expeditiously consider the issue of Kabuga’s detention on remand.

 

The 90-year-old was a businessman before and during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. He is charged with seven counts which include genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, as well as persecution and extermination as crimes against humanity.

 

Kabuga was arrested in France in May 2020.

 

Nicknamed ‘genocide financier’ for he allegedly provided substantial support to the genocide in terms of finance, logistics and moral support, Kabuga had been on the run for nearly three decades.

 

Victims and survivors of the Genocide were very disappointed in the jury's verdict. They waited for three decades to see if justice will be delivered.

 

Kabuga’s case has been a sham from the beginning.

 

How could he hide for more than 20 years in a country with advanced intelligence and technology? Upon his arrest, why did France never charge Kabuga with impersonation, forgery and falsifying of identification? There are many unanswered questions.

 

The Kabuga case unmasked the persistence of negationism and denial of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, through various attempts to minimize the scale and severity of the genocide.

 

Again, one wonders; had it been a Nazi, would the court have let Kabuga go?

 

For instance, since the beginning of his trial Kabuga claimed to be too old to stand trial.  But it has been proven that no one is too old to face justice.

 

Irmgard Furchner, 97, a former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp was convicted in December 2022, of aiding and abetting the murders of more than 10,500 people, and being complicit in the attempted murder of five others. She was given a two-year suspended jail term, making her the first woman to be tried for Nazi crimes in decades.

 

Related: Kabuga and Furchner: None too old to face justice

 

Vincent Gigante, a powerful New York mob boss, avoided prison for decades by faking mental illness, where he wandered in the streets in a ratty bathrobe and slippers while talking to himself.

 

His insanity ruse came to an end in 2003, when he admitted faking it.

 

Unlike Kabuga, Gigante was sentenced for his crimes, and died in a federal prison in 2005.

 

Related: Kabuga’s dementia, another ploy to evade justice

 

Again, IRMCT halted Kabuga’s trial citing a medical report that stated that he had clinical dementia, his family claiming that he was ‘forgetful’ and therefore cannot stand trial.

 

The IRMCT Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, stated that the Appeal Chamber’s decision in the Kabuga case must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying.

 

“This decision may be a disappointment, but I can assure the victims and survivors that it is not the end of the justice process,” Brammertz noted.

 

If this dissatisfying court's decision is not the end of the justice process, what is the end? Until when will the victims and survivors of the Genocide bear this injustice?