FINLAND has charged a former pastor at a Baptist church in Rwanda with genocide for his alleged role in the mass killings in the African country in 1994.
Francois Bazaramba, 58, has been in detention in Finland since April 2007 but the government said in February it would not extradite him because it feared he would not get a fair trial in Rwanda.
State prosecutor Raija Toiviainen said she had enou
gh evidence to bring the charges to the court, with about 100 witnesses heard. The maximum sentence would be of life if he is found guilty. Ms Toiviainen said Bazaramba was also charged with 15 counts of murder.
"It is obvious according to the pre-trial investigation that the man has committed a crime of genocide in the municipality of Nyakizu in April and May 1994 with intent to destroy the Rwandan Tutsis partly or totally," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.
Rwanda accuses Bazaramba of orchestrating the murder of 5,000 people in 1994. A total of about 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the massacres carried out by Hutu militias.
Local media said Bazaramba arrived in Finland in 2003 and sought asylum. His lawyer said his client was not in a position where he could have led any killings. "we have evidence that some of the witnesses heard in Rwanda were tortured," he said.
The full article contains 239 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
