Sweden to try Genocide suspect

Swedish authorities have announced that the trial of a man accused of participating in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi is scheduled to begin in November.According to Swedish prosecutor Magnus Elving, the man, whose identity has not been disclosed, obtained Swedish citizenship in 2008.“He was arrested at the end of 2011 and has been held in detention since then, and I think he should be charged in November,” Elving told AFP, adding that the trial should run from November to May.The man is suspected of “the most serious crimes”: genocide and crimes against international law, Elving said, and that it’s the first time someone faces trial for genocide is Sweden.If convicted, he faces Sweden’s maximum sentence of life imprisonment, which means that after serving 10 years in prison he can ask a court to give him a set number of years behind bars.The head of the Genocide Fugitive Tracking Unit, Jean Bosco Siboyintore, told The New Times that the name of the suspect is still confidential due to the fact that investigations are still going on.“We wanted to have this man extradited to Rwanda but we were told that he acquired citizenship and that he is a citizen of Sweden” said Siboyintore.According to the Swedish prosecutor, part of the trial would take place in Rwanda and that it would be the first time a Swedish trial would be held partly abroad.“It’s easier to obtain information in Rwanda,” he told public broadcaster Swedish Radio.The man has been in Sweden since 2007, when he joined his family there and obtained a residency permit based on family reunification grounds.Sweden has previously ruled on the extradition to Rwanda of another Genocide fugitive, Sylvaire Ahorugeze, whose pleas were dismissed by all the courts of the country, including the Supreme Court, with all ruling that the Rwandan justice system was well equipped to conduct the trial.He later appealed to the European Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, which also said he would get a fair trial once transferred home, but the case is currently at the appeal level of the same court.

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Sweden to try Genocide suspect