A disabled Genocide suspect who has been in detention in Mayotte for the last eight months has been transferred to a different prison as a move to facilitate his movements. The transfer of Pascal Simbikangwa, who moves in a wheelchair, from Mayotte an overseas territory of France - to Domenjod Saint-Denis prison in La Reunion, happened last Friday as indicated by Marc Brisset-Foucault, the prosecutor at the High Court of Appeal (TSA) of Mayotte. The prosecutor explained that Simbikangwa’s transfer was agreed upon following the prisoner’s long stay at Mayotte prison that did not offer him easy possibilities of movement in his wheelchair, while the new destination has three cells arranged for people with disabilities. “This transfer was done with the agreement of the judges in charge in Paris since the openning of his file for genocide in June, Brisset-Foucault was quoted as saying. In October last year, Simbikangwa was arrested by the French authorities of Mayotte Island on charges of doctoring documents however it was later found out he was among the most wanted suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Born in 1959 in Western Rwanda and better known as a member of the Hutu extremist group of Akazu, he lived in the Indian Ocean Island of Comoros and later on in Mayotte, before he was indicted following a complaint by the collective of civil parties for Rwanda. Simbikangwa is also notorious for his torturing tactics when he was the head of Criminal Intelligence Agency (CRA), a unit charged with the task of compiling lists of people to be killed during the Genocide. According to the Rwanda National Public Prosecution Authority, the man is charged with many counts that include Genocide, Complicity in Genocide and and being member of a criminal enterprise. Recently Rwandan prosecution accused France of putting more weight on his forgery cases than the Genocide ones, calling on his urgent trial as apparently a request for his extradition has been turned down. Ends
