Rwandan genocide case opens in Finland

2009-06-16 19:06:01 -

HELSINKI (AP) - A Finnish court held a preliminary hearing Tuesday in a case against a Rwandan man charged with genocide and murder in his home country in 1994.
The Porvoo District Court said 58-year-old Francois Bazaramba, who has lived in Finland since 2003, faces a life sentence if found guilty.
The prosecution has charged Bazaramba with ordering numerous killings, including 15 murders at which he also was present. Many of the victims were women and children, it said.
Court documents allege that Bazaramba also incited hatred against the Tutsi minority, confiscated its property and ordered its homes to be burned.
Bazaramba, a member of the majority Hutu tribe, denied all the charges in court on Tuesday.
He lives in the southern town of Porvoo, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of the capital, Helsinki. He has been held in police custody since April 2007, on a court order, while the National Bureau of Investigation conducted an investigation, mostly in Rwanda and neighboring countries.
Finnish officers interviewed some 100 witnesses, mostly in Rwanda and in other African countries. Rwandan officials also provided them with evidence, including witness statements.
State Prosecutor Raija Toiviainen said Bazaramba, who had been an active member of an extremist Hutu movement and a national leader in the Baptist Church's youth group, had committed the crime of genocide in the Nyakizu in April and May 1994 «with intent to destroy the Rwandan Tutsis partly or totally.
Court papers said Bazaramba was «one of the most important leaders in mass destruction (genocide) in the Nyakizu municipality.
In February, Finland declined a request by Rwandan officials to extradite Bazaramba, saying he might not receive a fair trial in his home country. The Justice Ministry said its decision was based on a ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal, which has prohibited the referral of similar cases to Rwandan courts.
The case is being tried in Finland because the Nordic country has signed international agreements to investigate and try cases of genocide, if a suspect is living in Finland or has been apprehended here.
After the one-day hearing Tuesday, the trial will reopen in Porvoo on Sept. 1.
It is Finland's first genocide case and is expected to last months, if not years. Court officials said they will travel to Rwanda and other countries _ mostly in Africa _ to hear witnesses.
In a related case in the United States, Lazare Kobagaya, 85, has been charged in federal court in Wichita, Kansas, with fraud and unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2006. Documents filed in the case allege that Kobagaya, who is from neighboring Burundi, was a close friend of Bazaramba and joined him in helping lead some of the 1994 attacks and killings of Tutsis.
The Rwanda genocide was carried out by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates. More than 500,000 people were killed in 100 days.