News
Prosecutor seeks transfer of Kabuga to UN custody
Felicien Kabuga, indicted on charges of genocide related to the 1994 Rwandan massacre of some 800,000 people, appeared before a French court on Wednesday, four days after his arrest following a quarter of a century on the run.
In his first appearance in public in more than 20 years, the octogenarian was brought into the court in a wheelchair, dressed in jeans and a blue jumper and wearing a face mask.
Kabuga is accused of bankrolling and arming the ethnic Hutu militias that waged the 100-day killing spree against Rwanda’s Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Rwanda’s most wanted fugitive, he was arrested on Saturday in a Paris suburb.
His lawyers said in a statement before the hearing that Kabuga had the right to be presumed innocent and opposed being transferred from France to a United Nations (UN) tribunal that handles crimes against humanity based in Tanzania.
Defence lawyer Laurent Bayon told the court Kabuga wished to be tried in France.
The court will decide whether to hand Kabuga to the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCTs). The international court is based in The Hague, the Netherlands and Arusha, Tanzania.
The IRMCT’s chief prosecutor told Reuters news agency the court had already requested Kabuga be transferred to UN custody.
Kabuga’s voice was weak, but audible, as he confirmed through an interpreter his identity and parents’ names. He gave his date of birth as March 1, 1933.
Kabuga’s arrest marked the end of a more than 20 years long hunt that spanned Africa and Europe.
A one-time tea and coffee tycoon, he is accused of being a main financier of the genocide, paying for the militias that carried out the massacres, as well as importing huge numbers of machetes, according to the UN tribunal’s indictment.
He also co-owned Radio Television Milles Collines, whose radio station broadcast anti-Tutsi messages that fanned the ethnic hatred.
The United States had placed a $5m reward on his head.
The French court granted a request by the defence to defer the hearing and set the next date for May 27.
Exiting the courtroom, Kabuga raised his fist as several relatives including one son voiced encouragement. -Aljazeera
Miniser for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has revealed a major shake up at Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) following recent power outages.
In a post on Facebook, Felix Kwakye Ofosu disclosed that Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor has asked the CEO of GRIDCo to step aside pending investigations into fire incident at Akosombo power control center.
Also, he further noted that there has been a major shake up in the leadership of the ECG in the Ashanti Region.
“At 2pm tomorrow, Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Hon John Jinapor, will hold a major briefing on recent developments in electricity distribution,” he concluded.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
News
Abu Trica’s extradition case: Prophets, fetish priests demand pay for spiritual solution …Lawyer reveals
Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a lawyer for embattled Frederick Kumi, affectionately called Abu Trica and has made a shocking revelation over the behaviour of some members of the clergy.
According to him in a post on social media, the difficult part of Abu Trica’s trial is not the law but the number of ‘Men of God’ and fetish priests demanding financial sacrifices to help resolve the matter spiritually.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2026, “The most difficult part about the Abu Trica case; is not the law.”
He continued: “It is the number of, prophetesses, evangelists and fetish priests, who have called or messaged to ask us to pay for spiritual solutions.”
It would be recalled that in March this year, the Gbese District Court dismissed a preliminary objection filed by Abu Trica, challenging the extradition proceedings initiated at the request of the United States.
The court, presided over by Anna Akosua Appiah Gottfried Anaafi Gyasi, in its ruling held that the offences forming the basis of the extradition, particularly wire fraud, constitute extraditable offences under the 1931 treaty between Ghana and the United States.
He was then given 15 days counting from March 27 to appeal the decision of the court or be surrendered for extradition to the US.
Against this backdrop, he was on Tuesday, April 22, granted a bail in the sum of GH¢30,000,000 by an Accra High, pending the appeal of his extradition
Mr Kumi was arrested in Ghana in December 2025 following an indictment by United States authorities, alleging that he played a role in a romance scam network that defrauded elderly American victims of more than $8 million.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
