Genocide suspect arrested

2008-07-08 20:10

Berlin - Rwandan war crimes suspect Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee wanted for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has been arrested in Frankfurt, a prosecutor in the German city said on Tuesday.

"He was arrested on Monday afternoon at Frankfurt airport, from where he had wanted to fly to Saint Petersburg," said Peter Rueckert, a state prosecutor in charge of extradition cases at the Frankfurt court of appeal.

Rueckert said Rwandan authorities have been informed of the arrest, adding that Mbarushimana, who is wanted in France and Rwanda, would appear before a judge in the next two days.

Rwandan authorities are demanding Mbarushimana's extradition, accusing him of killing and ordering the killings of many Tutsis including some of his colleagues at the UN Development Programme, where he worked in Kigali in the early 1990s.

He was arrested in Kosovo in April 2001 while he was working for the UN and turned over to the Rwandan war crimes tribunal, but charges against him were dropped in September 2002 due to lack of evidence.

In 2003, he was given refugee status in France where he has lived as a leader in exile of the Hutu group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

But French authorities opened an investigation against him in February after a complaint was lodged by a group of genocide victims.

- AFP