Felicien Kabuga, one of the last remaining suspects linked to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, has died in custody at the age of 93, the United Nations tribunal overseeing Rwanda genocide cases said on Saturday.
Kabuga was arrested in France in 2020 after spending more than two decades as a fugitive and was later transferred to The Hague to face charges related to his alleged role in the genocide.
However, proceedings against him were suspended after judges ruled he was unfit to stand trial due to advanced dementia. He was also considered too ill to be transferred back to Rwanda.
With no country agreeing to receive him, Kabuga remained at the U.N. detention facility in The Hague until his death. The court said it had launched an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death.
The former businessman and media owner was among the final high-profile fugitives sought over the 1994 genocide, during which Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over approximately 100 days.
Prosecutors accused Kabuga of financing and supporting ethnic Hutu militias and using his media influence through the broadcaster Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was accused of spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda and incitement during the killings.
The announcement was made by the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, which handles remaining cases inherited from the former U.N. tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.