Human Rights | 08.07.2008
Rwandan Genocide Suspect Arrested in Germany
A former UN employee wanted for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has been arrested at the Frankfurt airport, a state prosecutor has said.
Callixte Mbarushimana was arrested on Monday afternoon in Frankfurt, from where he had wanted to fly to St. Petersburg, according to Peter Rueckert, a prosecutor in charge of extradition cases in Frankfurt's court of appeals. Mbarushimana is wanted in both France and Rwanda in connection with charges of genocide.
Rueckert said authorities in Rwanda had been informed of Mbarushimana's arrest and that the suspect would appear before a judge in the next two days.
Rwanda wants Mbarushimana's extradition, charging that he killed and ordered killed many Tutsis, including some of his colleagues at the UN Development Programme, where he worked in Kigali in the early 1990s.
He was arrested in 2001 in Kosovo while working for the United Nations, but charges were dropped the next year for lack of evidence.
In 2003, he was given refugee status by France, where he lived as a leader in exile of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu group.
But in February, French authorities began investigating him after a group of genocide victims lodged a complaint against him.
