A 66-year-old man from Ede has gone on trial in The Hague accused of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed. He denies all the charges, public broadcaster NOS reported.
The man, named by the court as Eugène N, has lived in the Netherlands since 1998 and holds Dutch nationality. Because Dutch nationals are not extradited, he cannot be sent to Rwanda and is being tried here instead.
He was arrested in Ede two years ago, after the Dutch police international crimes team investigated him from 2020, travelling to Rwanda several times to question witnesses and inspect the sites involved. Rwanda issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2014.
The public prosecution department says N, then a local official in the southern Butare region, led a looting raid and the burning of Tutsi homes, and was involved in the killing of 3,000 Tutsis herded into a stadium in nearby Mbazi. Prosecutors also accuse him of urging others to take part in the genocide.
His lawyers are demanding acquittal, arguing that his influence as a local official was limited and that he tried to prevent the killing. They told the court that witnesses’ memories had become distorted and that none had seen him commit any act of violence.
