Gabon arrests doctor over genocide

2010-06-25 08:00

Kigali - Gabon has arrested a Rwandan doctor accused of planning and participating in the 1994 genocide in which 800 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, a Rwandan prosecution spokesperson said on Thursday.

Jean-Chrysostome Ndindabahizi was arrested in Gabon over the weekend on charges of genocide complicity, conspiracy to commit genocide, public incitement to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, murder, extermination and creation of criminal gangs.

"His crimes were inciting and preparing the genocide, drawing lists of Tutsi victims for killing, participating himself in the murder of Tutsis and also setting up roadblocks," Rwandan state prosecution spokesperson Augustin Nkusi told Reuters.

Ndindabahizi could face trial in Rwanda itself or at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, Nkusi said, even though he is not on a list of 11 outstanding suspects wanted by the ICTR.

Nkusi said Ndindabahizi worked as a doctor at the Rwandan national university in Butare in 1994, and may have been working in the Gabonese presidency before his arrest.

Gabon denied that and said at the time of his arrest, Ndindabahizi was working under a false identity at a hospital 11km outside Libreville.

The spokesperson for the Gabonese presidency, Guy Bertrand Mapangou, said the west African country did not have any extradition treaty with Rwanda and that the suspect was handed over to Interpol.

Rwanda will have to go through regular procedures to seek Ndindabahizi's extradition, he added.

- Reuters