FINLAND – A Rwandan Baptist preacher accused of genocide during the country’s brutal 1994 civil war will not be extradited from Finland because it is feared he will not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. He stands accused of overseeing the murder of 5,000 Tutsis in Nyakizu.
The preacher moved to Finland in 2003, and was arrested in 2007 on suspicions of carrying out the massacre. He has been in Finnish police custody ever since. Rwanda requested he be sent back in 2008, but the Finnish Justice Ministry decided to fall in line with the 2008 ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that prohibits “the referral of three pending cases to Rwandan courts … since it was not satisfied that the defendants would receive a fair trial in Rwanda.”
If Finland does decide to officially charge the man, whose name they have yet to reveal, the trial would take place in Finland.
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