General

Canada deports Rwandan genocide suspect

Ends 16-year legal battle

A man accused of inciting genocide in Rwanda was deported from Canada late on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Leon Mugesera was expected to arrive in his native Rwanda overnight on Tuesday and be immediately transferred to a Rwandan prison. Mugesera is charged in Rwanda with inciting murder, extermination and genocide. His deportation marks the end of his 16-year legal battle to remain in Canada. In 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Mugesera committed a crime against humanity for encouraging the extermination of ethnic Tutsis in a 1992 speech in Rwanda. At the time, he was a member of the ruling Hutu party. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died as a result of the central African country’s 1994 genocide. Mugesera has raised fears of being tortured or killed if he is returned to Rwanda. The UN Committee Against Torture had requested that Ottawa delay Mugesera’s deportation so that it could investigate the validity of his fears, but the government pushed through his deportation, according to Reuters.

Reuters

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