Rwandan genocide suspect Fulgence Kayishema, who was recently arrested in South Africa after years on the run, is now seeking political asylum in the country, according to his lawyer.Kayishema, a former police officer in Rwanda, is accused of taking part in mass killings during the 1994 genocide, particularly an attack on a church where more than 2,000 people seeking refuge were killed.He is wanted by the Residual Mechanism of International Criminal Courts of the United Nations for genocide and crimes against humanity.
One of the last remaining suspects accused of orchestrating the brutal killings of some of the hundreds of thousands of people massacred in the Rwandan genocide nearly 30 years ago will seek political asylum in South Africa after he was finally tracked down and arrested, say his lawyer. Tuesday,
The move could further delay Fulgence Kayishema’s extradition to his home country to face long-awaited justice in a genocide trial.
Kayishema, a former police officer in Rwanda, is one of the last four fugitives wanted by the International Residual Mechanism for the United Nations Criminal Courts for genocide and crimes against humanity related to the 100 days of horror that unfolded in the East African nation last year. 1994
Kayishema was accused by the court in 2001 of being a central figure in the killing of more than 2,000 people who sought refuge in a church in the first days of the genocide.
Now 62, he was arrested last month in the small town of Paarl, near Cape Town, South Africa, after being on the run for half his life.
PRESIDENT NIGERIA REPLACES ALL SECURITY CHIEFS IN A BIG JOURNAL
More than 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide when militias made up primarily of members of the Hutu ethnic group clashed with their Tutsi neighbors. The killings, an attempt to exterminate the Tutsi minority, were unleashed on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down, killing the leader.
Kayishema is accused of being one of the leaders of a Hutu mob that killed Tutsi men, women and children who were hiding in the Catholic church to escape the sudden outbreak of violence. Kayishema and others tried to burn down the church, and when that failed, they used a bulldozer to crush it, crushing the Tutsis inside to death, according to the charges against him.
In the end, more than 2,000 people were killed in and around the church, says the genocide charge against Kayishema.
The UN tribunal wants Kayishema sent to one of the court’s seats in Arusha, Tanzania, and then to Rwanda for trial, but it is unclear how long it will take South Africa to extradite him.
Following his arrest on May 24, Kayishema was charged at an earlier court appearance in Cape Town with 54 counts of immigration offenses and fraud for forging documents to enter and live in South Africa. Parts of this case must be deployed first. The extradition process was further clouded on Tuesday when his lawyer announced that Kayishema will now seek political asylum.
Fulgence Kayishema stands in the Magistrate’s Court in Cape Town, South Africa on May 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht, file)
Kayishema left Rwanda in 1994 “for fear of his life,” lawyer Juan Smuts told reporters after the hearing.
Smuts said he hid in at least three other African countries before arriving in South Africa between 2000 and 2002. Smuts said Kayishema was 62, not 61, as previously announced by South African police.
Smuts said the immigration and fraud charges against Kayishema should be stayed while authorities consider his asylum application. South African tax authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila denied this and said the asylum claim was unrelated to the criminal case against Kayishema. Prosecutors will also soon launch a case to extradite him for his genocide trial, Ntabazalila said.
However, any extradition is likely to be delayed by at least two months, after the judge adjourned Kayishema’s South African court case until August 18. He has not entered a plea to any of the charges and has not applied for bail. He is being held in prison.
The killings at the Nyange church in western Rwanda are one of many horrific episodes of the genocide and Rwandans had welcomed Kayishema’s arrest last month. The court said he was one of the world’s most wanted genocide fugitives.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“My wish is that he be returned to Rwanda (to) face justice in the presence of survivors against whom he committed crimes,” said Aloys Rwamasirabo, who survived the Nyange church massacre but saw nine of his children die. “Many innocent people died at the hands of their leaders, including Kayishema.”
Kayishema did not speak during his final court hearing, but smiled, waved and fingered some of his family members sitting in the courtroom at the end of the hearing. Smuts said Kayishema’s wife, children and other family members now live in South Africa. Kayishema was guarded by seven armed policemen who watched him as he stood before the judge.
Kayishema’s case has previously frustrated prosecutors at the UN court.
He was located in the Cape Town area as early as 2018, only because the South African authorities did not act on the arrest warrant. Kayishema disappeared because of South Africa’s failure to act, the court said in some of its reports to the UN Security Council, and it took another five years to find Kayishema again and arrest him.
