The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), a United Nations (UN) tribunal, declared Wednesday that Félicien Kabuga, one of the last fugitives of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, is unfit to stand trial due to dementia. 

IRMCT considered the opinion of medical experts, who said that the “consequences of dementia deprive Mr. Kabuga of the capabilities necessary for meaningful participation in a trial” and that “he will not recover these capacities because his condition is characterized by progressive and irreversible decline.” In light of Kabuga’s unfitness for trial, the judges stated that they will establish “an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction.”

Accused of masterminding and financing the genocide of the Tutsi ethnic minority group in Rwanda, Kabuga was arrested near Paris, France in 2020. He was first indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 1997 before being transferred to the IRMCT. The IRMCT then charged him in 2021 with genocide pursuant to Articles 2(3)(a) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute, direct and public indictment to commit genocide pursuant to Articles 2(3)(c) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute, conspiracy to commit genocide pursuant to Articles 2(3)(b) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute, persecution on political grounds pursuant to Articles 3(h) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute, extermination pursuant to Articles 3(b) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute and murder pursuant to Articles 3(a) and 6(1) of the ICTR Statute.

Yolande Mukakasana, a writer and survivor of the 1994 genocide, criticized the ruling, stating that “[t]he decision by the court is likely to undermine the spirit of reconciliation going on in Rwanda. As a genocide survivor, I don’t understand this.”

The decision comes around two weeks after the IRMCT announced the arrest of Fulgence Kayishema, who is also charged with genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.