One of the surviving suspects, charged with planning the atrocious murders of some of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Rwandan genocide nearly 30 years ago, would be seeking political asylum in South Africa, his attorney said.
The asylum request will cause further delay in Fulgence Kayishema’s extradition to his native nation for a long-awaited genocide prosecution.
Kayishema, an ex-police officer, is one of the four people wanted by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals of the United Nations, for genocide and crimes against humanity, in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
In 2001, the tribunal accused Kayishema of assisting in the extermination of almost 2,000 individuals, who were seeking safety at a church during the early stages of the genocide. After spending half his life on the run, Kayishema was finally apprehended last month in the South African town of Paarl.
The genocide in Rwanda, which claimed more than 800,000 lives, began when armed groups of Hutu citizens turned on their Tutsi neighbors. On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the Hutu president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, was shot down, leading to his death. This event set off the massacres, a plot to exterminate the minority Tutsis.
However, Kayishema has been indicted with 54 counts of immigration violations and fraud, at a prior court hearing in Cape Town, for fabricating paperwork to enter and reside in South Africa.
The extradition procedure has met some complications as Kayishema’s attorney declared that, he would now be seeking for political asylum. According Kayishema’s lawyer, Juan Smut, he left Rwanda in 1994 “out of fear for his life.”
Between 2000 and 2002, Kayishema hid in at least three other African nations before traveling to South Africa, according to Smuts. In contrast to what the South African police had earlier stated, Smuts stated that, Kayishema is rather 62 years old not 61, as reports have claimed.
Smuts stated that, Kayishema’s fraud and immigration offenses would need to be suspended while officials looked into his asylum request. According to Eric Ntabazalila, the spokesman for the South African prosecuting authorities, this is false and the asylum request is unrelated to Kayishema’s criminal prosecution. According to Ntabazalila, prosecutors would soon file a case to have him extradited for his genocide prosecution.
However, because the judge continued Kayishema’s immigration fraud court case, any extradition would probably be deferred for a minimum of two months. He pleaded not guilty to any of the accusations, and he has not made a bail application, he remains detained in jail in South Africa.
On the other hand, Rwandans applauded Kayishema’s detention last month because, the massacres at the Nyange church in western Rwanda, were one of several horrifying incidents that took place during the genocide. He was listed as one of the most wanted genocide fugitives worldwide by the court.
Aloys Rwamasirabo, a survivor of the Nyange church slaughter, but lost nine of his children, said, “my wish is that, he is brought back to Rwanda to face justice in the presence of survivors whom he committed crimes against. Many innocent people perished at the hands of their leaders.”
Though, Kayishema was discovered in the Cape Town region back in 2018, South African authorities did not execute an arrest warrant for him. In some of its reports to the U.N. Security Council, the Tribunal claimed that, Kayishema escaped as a result of South Africa’s inaction, and it required an additional five years to track him down and apprehend him.
