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STOCKHOLM, April 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The government of Sweden has given the green light to the extradition of Jean-Paul Micomyiza, 49, to Rwanda where he is accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
This comes three months after a top Swedish Court on Dec 21, 2021, found no reason why the Rwandan arrested in the Nordic country in 2020 should not be extradited to Kigali where he is wanted for crimes he allegedly committed during the 1994 Genocide.
Reports in Swedish media indicate that the government of the Nordic country decided to grant Kigali’s request for Micomyiza’s extradition on March 31.
Micomyiza is accused of leading a militia and mutilating, murdering and raping during the genocide in 1994. His Swedish lawyers, it is reported, will now turn to the European Court of Justice.
He was detained on Nov 17, 2020.
In December 2021, reports from Sweden indicated that the Supreme Court there saw no legal obstacle to extraditing Micomyiza to Rwanda.
His lawyers, Thomas Bodström and Hanna Larsson Rampe were against the court’s ruling, claiming that the legal system in Rwanda has serious shortcomings, a claim advanced by most defenders of suspected mass murderers elsewhere.
The suspect has lived in Gothenburg, a major city in Sweden situated off the Göta Älv River on the country’s west coast, for 15 years.
He was arrested as a result of Rwanda’s request for his extradition, on suspicion of involvement in the 1994 Tutsi Genocide.
Micomyiza applied but was denied citizenship in Sweden because he is politically active.
During the Genocide committed against Tutsi in 1994, Micomyiza was a second year student at the then National University of Rwanda, in the Faculty of Applied Sciences. As a university student, he was also a member of a committee called Comité de Crise that was instrumental in committing the Genocide.
According to sources, evidence gathered during investigations shows the participation of the suspect in crimes committed in Ngoma Commune, in the former Butare Préfecture (Currently in Huye District, in the Southern Province), at the campus of the University campus and its surroundings.
Micomyiza is accused of: committing Genocide by killing members of the Tutsi ethnic group, complicity in Genocide and crimes against humanity (rape).
Sweden is home to other Genocide suspects including Théodore Rukeratabaro who was, in mid-2018, given a life sentence there for his role in the 1994 Genocide.
Apart from Rukeratabaro, on February 15, 2017, the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, upheld the life sentence imposed on Claver Berinkindi, a Rwandan who acquired Swedish citizenship in 2012. Berinkindi was found guilty of Genocide, a crime he committed in the former Prefecture of Butare. Another is Stanisilas Mbanenande who was handed a life sentence on June 20, 2013. — NNN-AGENCIES
