• About US
  • Our Work
Saturday, May 31, 2025
  • Login
Journalists For Justice (JFJ)
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers
No Result
View All Result
Journalists For Justice (JFJ)
No Result
View All Result

Siblings linked to Kabuga continue 18-year fight to have their assets released

byJanet Sankale
June 18, 2021
in The ICC
Reading Time: 4 mins read
70
A A
Félicien Kabuga during his first appearance before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals Hague Branch on 11 Nov 2020.

Félicien Kabuga during his first appearance before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals Hague Branch on 11 Nov 2020.

22
SHARES
244
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Whatsapp

François Ngirabatware and his sister, Catherine Mukakayange, have been denied access to their assets and bank accounts for 18 years because of their relationship to former fugitive Félicien Kabuga.

The two fell foul of the law on March 11, 2003, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ordered the freezing of Ngirabatware’s and Mukakayange’s bank accounts in Brussels, Belgium, on suspicion that they could use the assets to help Kabuga evade capture. The court ruled that the Belgian government was obliged to cooperate with the ICTR and its prosecutor and that for as long as Kabuga was a fugitive, the funds should remain unavailable to the two.

At the time, Ngirabatware was a son-in-law of Kabuga, who has been accused of being a major financier of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which almost a million people were killed. In 1997, the ICTR indicted Kabuga of seven criminal counts, including genocide and crimes against humanity. He eluded capture for 26 years until May 16, 2020, when he was arrested in an apartment at Asnières-sur-Seine near Paris.

He is currently incarcerated at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague, awaiting trial at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). The United Nations Security Council established the court on December 22, 2010 to continue the jurisdiction, rights, obligations, and essential functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after the completion of their respective mandates

RelatedPosts

Karim Khan’s exit deals another blow to the troubled ICC

Dilemma of ICC-wanted Netanyahu’s visit high on the agenda of new leadership in Germany

ICC issues landmark policy to tackle slavery crimes

Ngirabatware and Mukakayange have filed a motion requesting the court to unfreeze their bank accounts, arguing that it no longer maintains an interest in freezing the accounts now that Kabuga has been arrested.

Journalists For Justice spoke to Peter Robinson, who is representing Ngirabatware and Mukakayange at IRMCT. He also represented the two before the ICTR. He once defended Radovan Karadžić, former president of the self-declared autonomous Bosnian Serb Republic, before the ICTY.

Journalists For Justice (JFJ): François Ngirabatware and his sister, Catherine Mukakayange, were hit hard by crimes they never committed. They were denied access to their bank accounts, apparently because François married the daughter of one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, Félicien Kabuga. Does this mean that if you are related to a fugitive, you are punished even if you have nothing to do with their crime?

Peter Robinson: The ICTR Prosecutor took the position that anyone related to Félicien Kabuga could possibly assist him to avoid capture and therefore if they had assets, they could be frozen. This sweeping generalisation is unfair and, in my view, illegal, but it was never tested in court at the ICTR.

JFJ: Individual criminal responsibility is a principle of international criminal law and involves a person who is most responsible for the crime, especially senior officials who cannot be tried in the national criminal justice system and are considered likely to manipulate the system. In this case, do you think the principle of individual criminal responsibility has been violated?

Robinson: I don’t think the principle of individual criminal responsibility was violated because they were not charged with committing any crimes. The way it was used at the ICTR instead violated the principle against guilt by association –since the only basis for freezing the assets was François’ association with Félicien Kabuga by having been married to one of his children

JFJ: Mr Ngirabatware and Ms Mukakayange spent years in court corridors and at the financial institution in efforts to obtain access to their funds. Two decades is a long time without access to a personal bank account. How has life been for them?

Robinson: This was a great injustice to them and plunged François into poverty for years. The account held the assets of his trucking business and he lost that business as well as his money. He has not recovered even now, some 18 years later.

JFJ: Mr Ngirabatware and Ms Mukakayange stated that they were the only proprietors of the accounts and Kabuga was neither the source of the accounts nor interested in them. Mr Ngirabatware declared in an affidavit dated April 12, 2021 that he married one of Kabuga’s children (Claudine Twagirihirwe) in 1995 and that they were now divorced. Do they have a right to claim compensation for the losses and damages they have suffered after the years in court trying to gain access to their accounts?

Robinson: There is no provision for claiming damages against the UN or ICTR. Even people who have been falsely imprisoned for years have been found to have no remedy.  The banks and countries involved in freezing the accounts will say that all they did was follow orders from the ICTR. At this stage, the only remedy is to get the funds back.

Share9Tweet6Send
Previous Post

Karim Khan’s first speech as ICC Prosecutor

Next Post

Calls for reparation dominate debate at day for sexual violence survivors

Next Post
Calls for reparation dominate debate at day for sexual violence survivors

Calls for reparation dominate debate at day for sexual violence survivors

Please login to join discussion

Recent Posts

  • Karim Khan’s exit deals another blow to the troubled ICC
  • Proposed war crimes court holds hope for justice and accountability in Liberia
  • Dilemma of ICC-wanted Netanyahu’s visit high on the agenda of new leadership in Germany
  • Michael Correa’s US conviction brings into sharp focus the slow pace of transitional justice in The Gambia
  • Genocide marks 31 years and the clock is ticking for six Rwandans held in Niger

About

We call out impunity wherever it occurs; we advocate justice for all victims of atrocity crimes; and we work with people of goodwill everywhere who share our values.

Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Archives by Month:

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Communities of Justice
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Human Rights
  • Elections
  • About US
  • Our Work
  • Careers

Copyright © 2019. Journalists for Justice has asserted its right to be recognized as creators and owners of the content here. Reproduction in part or in whole is permitted on condition that JFJ is acknowledged and notified.