BRUSSELS: Five Rwandans will go on trial in Belgium over their alleged role in war crimes and genocide in Rwanda in 1994, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
“This is the first time that a Belgian (criminal court) will have to deal with facts qualified as genocide crimes,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Four trials linked to the massacres in Rwanda were held in Belgium between 2001 and 2009, although the defendants faced only charges of war crimes.
But the prosecutor’s office said the criminal court in Brussels will “also have to rule on the crime of genocide” in the new cases.
“The five accused still benefit from the presumption of innocence,” it said in a statement.
It said pre-trial authorities last week ruled that the five appear in the criminal court “for acts committed in 1994 in Rwanda in connection with the genocide of Tutsis and the massacre of moderate Hutus.”
The five were divided into two cases.
In the first, one defendant is referred to the court for murders and rapes; another for murders, attempted murders and rape; and a third for murders and attempted murders.
In the second case, one individual is referred for murders, and another for murders and attempted murders.
All the defendants are only identified by their initials.
In 1993, a law was adopted that allows courts in Belgium — the former colonial power in Rwanda — to try Belgian residents, whatever their nationality, for crimes allegedly committed abroad.
In 2001, four Rwandans, including two nuns, were convicted by a Brussels court.
In 2005, a Brussels court sentenced two Rwandan businessmen to 10-12 years in prison after they were found guilty of war crimes and murder linked to the genocide.
Then, in 2007, a former Rwandan army commander, ex-major, Bernard Ntuyahaga, was also convicted.
In 2009 a Brussels court sentenced Rwandan Ephrem Nkezabera, dubbed the “genocide banker,” to 30 years in prison for war crimes including murders and rapes during the bloodbath.
UN figures said 800,000 people were killed, most of them from the Tutsi minority.
Trials have also been held in other European countries like Sweden, the Netherlands, Finaland, and Norway as well as in Canada and Rwanda itself.
Cases have also been heard in Tanzania, whose northern city of Arusha hosts the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
5 Rwandans to stand trial in Belgium for 1994 genocide
5 Rwandans to stand trial in Belgium for 1994 genocide
- Four trials linked to the massacres in Rwanda were held in Belgium between 2001 and 2009
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
