Kabuga has been transferred to The Hague.
Rwandan genocide suspect, Félicien Kabuga will make his first appearance before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT-Mechanism) without the participation of the public, the UN court has said.
In a communique released this Monday the court said that Kabuga will stand a trial hearing in which the media and general public will have no access to the Mechanism premises.
The trial will take place on Wednesday,11 November 2020, at 2.00 p.m. Central European Time (3pm Rwanda Time) in the Mechanism’s Hague branch court room, pursuant to the “Order Scheduling an Initial Appearance” issued by Judge Iain Bonomy on November 8, 2020.
“Please note that due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no access to the Mechanism premises in The Hague for media representatives and members of the public wishing to attend the hearing,” the Mechanism said in a bolded statement.
However, the Mechanism said that the hearing will be publicly broadcast on the Mechanism’s website with a 30-minute delay, and will be available at the following link: https://www.irmct.org/en/cases/mict-courtroom-broadcast in English, French, and Kinyarwanda.
The mechanism also authorized Mechanism staff will take audio-visual footage, recordings of the proceedings and share with interested media after the hearing.
Media wishing to obtain footage of the hearing should send a request to mict-press@un.org.
Kabuga was recently transferred to The Hague in a turn-around decision taken by the UN mechanism, which had earlier announced that he would stand trial at the Arusha-Tanzania based mechanism court.
Kabuga, was arrested in France on May 16, 2020. he had appealed to the UN court mechanism requesting for his transfer to The Hague sighting many reasons including demanding to be close to his family.
Kabuga’s case will be heard before a Trial Chamber composed of Judge Iain Bonomy, Presiding, Judge Graciela Susana Gatti Santana, and Judge Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya.
He is charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and extermination and persecution as crimes against humanity, in respect of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
