[JURIST] Alleged Rwandan genocide perpetrator Emmanuel Mbarushimana on Wednesday challenged a decision by Denmark’s Supreme Court to extradite him to Rwanda. Filing an application before the European Court of Human Rights [official website], Mbarushimana claims that he will be unable to receive a fair trial [AFP report] if brought before a Rwandan court. Such a request could mean that his deportation from Denmark will be suspended for years.

After the Rwandan genocide that took the lives of 800,000 people, international and domestic courts have attempted to try those responsible. In September a court in France rejected [JURIST report] Rwanda’s extradition of Hutu ex-colonel Laurent Serubuga, holding that his alleged crimes occurred more than 10 years ago and were consequently barred by the statute of limitations. In June Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow, prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website] reiterated the UN Security Council’s request for member states to help bring to justice [JURIST report] nine fugitives allegedly responsible for war crimes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In July, a New Hampshire woman was sentenced to 10 years [JURIST report] in prison her her role in the genocide. In April French law enforcement officials arrested [JURIST report] former Rwandan leader Tite Barahira for conspiracy to commit genocide. In March a Dutch court convicted [JURIST report] Yvonne Basebya of inciting genocide after finding that she led meetings of a radical Hutu party and sang a song that called for the murder of all Tutsis. Basebya was sentenced to six years in prison. In February a court in Norway convicted [JURIST report] a Rwandan man living in Oslo for acting as an accomplice to the genocide. The court sentenced him to 21 years in prison.