Rwanda’s Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga has expressed shock about the news that one of the highly ranking genocide suspect has been given a new refugee hearing despite being turned down six times.
Exclusively speaking to Igihe.com, Ngoga said, “In fact I am surprised by the news that this suspect could be given the hearing for the refugee status. The Canadian Law Enforcement is aware of the accusations against him and my hope is that certain steps will be taken to prevent him from gaining the status.”
“He is the one of the notorious fugitives who among other criminal acts standards accused of killing a neighbor who refused to have sex with him. The accusations are too serious to be ignored by any standards,” Ngoga added.
Henry Jean Claude Seyoboka, 44, a resident of Gatineau, accused of shooting to death a neighbor who refused to have sex with him at a roadblock in Rwanda, will have his case re-heard by an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), following an appeal to the Federal Court of Canada.
Officials said no date has been set for his hearing, which will take place in Toronto.
The IRB spokesman Robert Gervais said a hearing date for Seyoboka is not “in the public domain.”
Seyoboka is not on a list of 30 of the CBSA’s Most Wanted but victims want him added to bring a speedy deportation. Five of the 30 fugitives have since been arrested.
He was refused refugee status due to his links to war crimes and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left over 800,000 Tutsis killed by the majority Hutu extremists.
Seyoboka a relative of the former first lady of Rwanda Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana, was a former head of Rwanda’s presidential security and was the president’s personal secretary, according to court documents.
His father-in-law Colonel Elie Sagatwa was with Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana aboard a plane that was shot down on April 1994. All 12 people were killed.
He is described in the documents as a former “Second-Lieutenant” in the Rwandan army and an advocate of Hutu extremism.
Seyoboka arrived in Canada in 1996 and filed a successful refugee asylum claim, which was revoked in 1998 after it was discovered he was in the military and had participated in the massacres, court records state.
He is accused of killing a woman, who was only identified as Francine, and her two children, because she refused to have sex with him in return for protection, according to court records.
“Mr. Seyoboka was part of a group manning a roadblock where Tutsis were being killed, and that he had murdered his neighbor, Francine, allegedly because she refused to have sex with him,” the high court heard last May in Toronto.
John Rukumbura, of the Rwandese Canadian Association, said Seyoboka was among the highest-ranking Rwandans of the dozens of suspects who fled to Canada.
“This man has a lot of blood on his hands,” Rukumbura said. “He has caused a lot of pain and should be deported from Canada immediately.”
He also called on the federal and provincial governments to stop funding legal aid for suspected war criminals since it can run into millions of dollars yearly
Additional Reporting: Toronto Sun
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