Democratic Republic of Congo will extradite a suspect in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, Congo’s justice minister said on Thursday, retreating from an earlier demand that Rwanda first respond to Congo’s own extradition requests.
Ladislas Ntaganzwa, a former Rwandan mayor under indictment for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was arrested in eastern Congo in December 2015.
He was one of nine high-profile fugitives wanted in connection with the genocide who are still at large. Rwanda has accused him of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, extermination, murder and rape.
Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe said that he had promised a delegation from the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, a U.N. body charged with overseeing genocide-related prosecutions, that Ntaganzwa would be extradited within a month. He made the pledge two weeks ago.
“At the moment, there are just a few formalities to take care of. It could happen at any moment,” Thambwe said of Ntaganzwa’s extradition.
Leave a Reply