Missionary 'planned genocide'

2005-10-05 12:54

Kigali - Rwanda will conditionally accept a request from Belgium to hand over a Belgian missionary charged with inciting and planning Rwanda's 1994 genocide, said the attorney general on Wednesday.

A Rwandan community court in September charged Belgian priest Guy Theunis with inciting and planning the 1994 genocide in which more than half a million people were killed.

Because the local court said Theunis was an alleged leader of the 100-day slaughter, the case was transferred for trial to a conventional court, where the missionary faces the death penalty. Belgium has no death penalty.

"The major aspect left to deal with before the handover is a guarantee from Belgium that whatever process he goes through, he will stand trial," said Attorney General Jean de Dieu Mucyo.

Belgium's request for Theunis' handover was sent to Rwanda on September 28, said Emmanuel Rukangira, a senior prosecutor in charge of the priest's case.

Theunis - who worked as the editor of Rwanda's periodical Le Dialogue - denied allegations that he incited the genocide by reproducing articles from the Kangura, a newspaper that promoted the killing of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority.

A United Nations tribunal had convicted the editor of Kangura, Hassan Ngeze, and sentenced him to life in prison.

Belgium first made an approach to have Theunis' case transferred from Rwanda last month when Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht met with his Rwandan counterpart, Charles Murigande.

Under the proposed proceedings for Theunis, a Belgian judicial committee would travel to Rwanda and assess the case. If Rwanda agrees, the case could be transferred to a Belgian investigating judge and the missionary would be transferred to Belgium.

Theunis was arrested in September in Kigali when he was passing through from South Africa.

- AP