[JURIST] Rwandan genocide suspect Dominique Ntawukuriryayo [ICTR website] has been arrested in France, a UN spokesperson said Thursday. Ntawukuriryayo, a former public official, had been on the run from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website], where he has been charged [indictment, PDF] with genocide, complicity in genocide and direct and public incitement to genocide. UN spokesperson Michelle Montas said Ntawukuriryayo will be transferred to Paris and then to the custody of the ICTR.

The charges against Ntawukuriryayo stem principally from his alleged involvement in the Kabuye Hill massacre that occurred over five days in late April 1994, during which as many as 25,000 people were killed. Then sub-prefect for Gisagara, he is charged with ordering Tutsis to move to Kabuye Hill, where he promised protection, but when they arrived, they were surrounded by and shot by gendarmes and communal policemen. Ntawukuriryayo's arrest follows a three-day hunger strike [JURIST report; HNA report] last week by 40 inmates awaiting trial at the ICTR. The UN News Centre has more.