The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague opened the trial Thursday of one of the last major suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an 87-year-old businessman and radio station owner who is accused of helping fund and promote the mass killings.
Confined to a wheelchair, Felicien Kabuga refused to appear in person or via video link at the start of the trial, citing a dispute regarding his lawyer, but judges ruled the case must go forward.
Kabuga's lawyers argued unsuccessfully that he was not fit to stand trial. However, on the advice of doctors who examined him, the process will run for just two hours per day.
Kabuga was arrested near Paris in 2020 after being on the run for many years with a $5 million bounty on his head.
He was extradited to the Netherlands, where he was charged with three counts of genocide and two counts of crimes against humanity, primarily for promoting hate speech through his broadcasting business, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines.
He is also said to have funded weapons for ethnic Hutu militias and other extremists in Rwanda's Hutu majority, who during a 100-day period in 1994 killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates.
Opening the trial Thursday, the ICC prosecutor told the court, "Twenty-eight years after the events, this trial is about holding Felicien Kabuga accountable for his substantial and intentional contributions to that genocide."
He said Kabuga supplied weapons in bulk and facilitated the training that prepared the paramilitary group that used them.
Kabuga has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Press.
