Belgium arrests Rwandan genocide suspect

Belgian police have arrested a former Rwandan magistrate wanted in connection with the 1994 genocide. Mathias Bushishi, 71, could face trial in Belgium, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Interpol

Bushishi, a Hutu and former prosecutor in Butare in the south of Rwanda, is under an international arrest warrant for war crimes and genocide. He is accused of helping to plan the massacre of Tutsis in his region.

He was arrested on Monday in Brussels and is now being held in the city’s Forest prison.

His detention follows the arrest of two other genocide suspects in late March, identified by the Rwandan media as Ernest Gakwaya and Emmanuel Nkunzuwimye.

Bushishi could be tried in Belgium under a law that allows the national courts to hear cases of crimes against humanity, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Four Rwandans have already been convicted in Belgian courts for involvement in the genocide, including Ephrem Nkezabera, known as the “banker of the genocide”. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2009.

At least 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days of ethnic violence in Rwanda following the assassination of president Juvénal Habiyarimana in April 1994.