Rwanda war crimes suspect arrested in Germany News
Rwanda war crimes suspect arrested in Germany

[JURIST] German border police arrested [press release] Rwandan war crimes suspect Callixte Mbarushiman on Wednesday as he was preparing to travel to Russia. Mbarushimana, a Hutu, was an employee of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) [official website] in Rwanda during the the country's 1994 genocide [HRW backgrounder], and was arrested in Frankfurt after Interpol issued an alert [Interpol notice]. He is suspected by Rwandan authorities of being responsible for the deaths of a number of Tutsis during the genocide, including some fellow UNDP employees. Reuters has more. Deutsche Welle has local coverage.

In 2005, the UN asked France to bring genocide charges [JURIST report] against Mbarushimana, who was then in the country under refugee status. Carla Del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website], refused to charge him and said the ICTR did not file an indictment against Mbarushimana because it lacked sufficient evidence against him.