German prosecutors have arrested a German-Rwandan man accused of helping carry out genocide and ordering the killing of 25 Tutsis during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The suspect, identified only as Innocent S. under German privacy rules, was arrested in the central German state of Hesse, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
He is accused of serving as an assistant to the mayor of Kayove in northwestern Rwanda during the genocide and using that position to direct attacks against Tutsis in the town.
Prosecutors said the suspect ordered the deaths of 25 Tutsis in five separate incidents. In one case, he is accused of taking part directly in the killing by stabbing a victim in the chest with a knife.
Authorities also allege that he incited the extermination of Tutsis in Kayove and helped draw up death lists used to target victims.
Germany has pursued several Rwanda genocide cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to prosecute grave international crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, even when they were committed abroad.
More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by Hutu extremists in Rwanda over roughly 100 days between April and July 1994.