A Belgian priest arrested in Kigali this week on suspicion of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide will face crimes against humanity charges before a village tribunal, judicial officials said on Thursday.
The case of Father Guy Theunis is to be referred to prosecutors who are expected to transfer it to so-called gacaca (pronounced ”gachacha”) courts that have been set up to deal with genocide suspects, they said.
”His case will be transferred Thursday to the prosecutors who will transfer it to the gacaca,” said prosecutor Emmanuel Rukangira.
Theunis, a member of the Missionary Society of Africa (SMA), was detained by Rwandan security officials in Kigali on Tuesday as he was about to board a connecting flight to Brussels after a week-long trip to the neighbouring eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
He is accused of complicity to commit genocide by allegedly inciting ethnic divisions amid violence during the 100-day killing spree in 1994, during which about 800 000 mainly Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutu extremists, officials said.
Rukangira said Theunis, who worked in Rwanda from 1970 to 1994 before being evacuated during the genocide and stationed in Italy, has been held for questioning since his arrest.
The specifics of the charges against Theunis — who had been part of the editorial team of Dialogue, a Rwandan magazine opposed to the genocide — were not immediately clear.
In Brussels on Wednesday, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said Kigali had not supplied Belgium with details of the case, and he asked for an explanation and information from Rwandan officials. – AFP
