Relief for genocide suspect
2008-07-09 18:06
Paris - France's top court on Wednesday overturned a decision to extradite Rwandan genocide suspect Clavere Kamana, a businessman accused of being a key instigator of the 1994 mass killings.
Kamana, born in 1940 and a legal resident of France, was arrested in February in the southeastern city of Annecy by police acting on an international arrest warrant issued by Rwanda.
The Cour de Cassation overturned a lower court ruling in favour of extradition and sent the case back to the Lyon appeals tribunal which has been asked to review the case.
Kamana's lawyer Claire Waquet said she was "very satisfied" by the decision.
France has extradited three genocide suspects to the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) since 2000, but has yet to hand over any suspect wanted for trial to Rwanda.