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00:00 UN judges have declared Felicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial.
00:03 Genocide survivors' organizations here in Rwanda had dreaded a decision like this, that
00:08 already a bit disappointed by the suspension of the trial in March.
00:11 The defense primarily relied on the alleged genocide financer's state of frail health
00:15 as the main argument against the proceedings.
00:18 Last month, Kabuga's lawyers said that his client had no chance of recovering his phacologies
00:22 because he suffers from several illnesses, including Alzheimer's.
00:25 However, the representative of the survivors here in Kigali regarded the focus on his health
00:30 as merely a pretext to evade justice.
00:33 The trial began in September 2022, only two years after his capture in France.
00:38 The proceedings then progressed at an extremely sluggish pace, with hearings being held for
00:43 only a few hours each week in The Hague.
00:46 Before the trial began ten months ago, the judges had deemed the accused fit to participate
00:50 but acknowledging his vulnerable and fragile state.
00:54 Nevertheless, the UN court is not willing to halt its efforts at this point.
00:58 The court claims to be seeking an alternative to this trial after enduring years of proceedings
01:02 but acknowledges that a conviction will not happen.