The alleged mastermind financier of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Felicien Kabuga on Wednesday was granted not guilty pleas during his first court appearance at The Hague.
Kabuga arrived at court in a wheelchair and did not respond to the charges before the U.N.’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, but the presiding judge deemed his silence as not guilty pleas.
Alleged for perpetrating the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Kabuga’s charge sheet includes complicity in genocide and persecution. Kabuga is said to have funded militias and used a radio station he ran to urge ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis.
The 84 year old faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted. He is being prosecuted by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) that inherited cases from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
