A JUDGE has lifted genocide charges against a Rwandan facing deportation from Canada. Leon Mugesera was considered a right-hand man to former president Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death in a plane crash on April 6, 1994 is believed to have triggered the murder of between 500 000 and 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu militants between April and July 1994. But a link between the speech and the genocide could not be established, Superior Court Judge Marc Nadon ruled. Mugesera still faces charges of incitement to hatred and murder. – AFP