{"id":2000112231,"date":"2026-05-16T19:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000112231"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:21:01","slug":"felicien-kabuga-dies-in-the-hague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/felicien-kabuga-dies-in-the-hague\/","title":{"rendered":"F\u00e9licien Kabuga dies in The Hague"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr. F\u00e9licien Kabuga passed away today while hospitalized in The Hague, The Netherlands,\u201d the Mechanism said in a statement released on Saturday, adding that the Medical Officer of the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU) was immediately notified and that Dutch authorities had launched the standard procedures and investigations required under Dutch law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of the IRMCT, Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, has also ordered a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Kabuga\u2019s death. The statement said Judge Alphons Orie had been assigned to conduct the inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kabuga had been held at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague since October 2020 after being arrested in France earlier that year. At the time of his death, he was awaiting provisional release to a country willing to receive him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kabuga faced charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to genocide, and crimes against humanity including persecution, extermination, and murder committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An arrest warrant against Kabuga was issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on 29 April 2013. He remained a fugitive for many years before his arrest on May 16, 2020 in France, where he had reportedly been living under a false identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following his arrest, Kabuga was transferred on October 26, 2020 to the Hague branch of the Mechanism, the UN body established to carry on the remaining functions of the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His trial officially began on September 29, 2022. However, proceedings were later suspended after judges found that his deteriorating health made him unfit to stand trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the IRMCT statement, the Trial Chamber issued a decision on 8 September 2023 indefinitely staying proceedings following an Appeals Chamber ruling delivered a month earlier.
The Chamber also ordered that Kabuga remain detained at the UNDU pending a decision on his provisional release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the suspension of his trial, discussions focused on finding a country willing to receive him. Rwanda had previously indicated that it was prepared to host him, arguing that it would guarantee his rights and medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Kabuga\u2019s lawyers and relatives opposed a transfer to Rwanda, citing his fragile health condition and arguing that long-distance travel would pose serious risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kabuga had reportedly hoped to settle in a European country, including France, but no State agreed to receive him. Dutch authorities also opposed his release into the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors before the Mechanism had argued that Kabuga\u2019s genocide-related charges significantly limited his chances of being accepted by European countries under refugee protection frameworks and immigration laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also pointed to the fact that he had spent years evading arrest while allegedly relying on false identities and support networks to remain hidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRMCT was established by the United Nations Security Council through Resolution 1966 adopted in December 2010. The Mechanism began operations in Arusha, Tanzania, in July 2012 and in The Hague in July 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the closure of the ICTR in 2015 and the ICTY in 2017, the IRMCT continued operating as a stand-alone institution responsible for handling remaining judicial functions, including appeals, enforcement of sentences, and the tracking of fugitives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kabuga had been held at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague since October 2020 after being arrested in France earlier that year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

F\u00e9licien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman accused of playing a central role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, has died in The Hague, the Netherlands, according to a statement released by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000112233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[151,70],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000112231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-40","tag-editors-choice","tag-main-home-ighlight","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":{"id":2000112233,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","alt":"","caption":"Kabuga had been held at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague since October 2020 after being arrested in France earlier that year.","mime_type":"image\/png","width":720,"height":405,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","width":150,"height":84},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","width":300,"height":169},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","width":720,"height":405},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","width":720,"height":405},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image-for-Website-Template-1_0.png","width":720,"height":405}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000112231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000112234,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112231\/revisions\/2000112234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000112233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000112231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000112231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000112231"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000112231"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000112231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}