German prosecutors arrest Rwanda genocide suspect
Key takeaways
- A German-Rwandan national has been arrested on suspicion of complicity in murders during Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
- The man, who was arrested in the central state of Hesse, is accused of giving orders for the deaths of 25 Tutsis while he was an assistant to the mayor of Kayove in northwestern Rwanda.
- The suspect, who has been identified only as Innocent S. under German privacy rules, is also thought by the prosecutors to have personally taken part in one murder, stabbing a victim in the chest with a knife.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
A German-Rwandan national has been arrested on suspicion of complicity in murders during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. He is thought to have been personally involved in the killing of one victim.
https://p.dw.com/p/5GNMKPhotos of some of those who died in the genocide are held at the kigali Genocide Memorial Centre Image: Ben Curtis/AP Photo/picture alliance Advertisement German prosecutors on Wednesday announced the arrest of a man suspected of being an accomplice in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically massacred by Hutu extremists.
Germany has already prosecuted several suspects linked to the genocide under a principle of universal jurisdiction allowing courts in the country to try some serious international crimes regardless of where they were committed.