UN says Rwanda genocide suspect Félicien Kabuga dies in Hague custody at 91

Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan genocide suspect held in U.N. custody in The Hague, died in a hospital while detained, the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said on Saturday. He was 91. The Mechanism said its medical officer was notified immediately and that an investigation had been ordered to determine the circumstances surrounding his death.

Kabuga had been charged over his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Prosecutors accused him of encouraging and bankrolling the killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, as well as facing counts that included genocide, incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity such as persecution, extermination and murder. He pleaded not guilty, and if convicted he would have faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

His case had reached trial in 2022, nearly three decades after the genocide. In 2023, however, judges ruled that he was unfit to continue standing trial due to dementia. They said they would establish a process to continue hearing evidence without the possibility of conviction. After that ruling,...