Facts
Fabien Neretsé was born in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, in 1948. Influential businessman and bureaucrat during the regime of Habyarimana – the Rwandan President whose murder on 6 April 1994 is usually indicated as the official start of the Rwandan genocide. Neretsé was, from 1989 to 1991, the Head of the Rwandan Authority for Coffee (OCIR-Café), the governmental office in charge of the coffee exports. He was also a member of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR), with the rank of Lieutenant.
According to the allegations against him, Neretsé is one of the founders of the Interahamwe, the pro-Hutu militia which was very much involved in the massacres in Rwanda. He would have provided them with weapons, means of transportation and money to finance the genocide.
He is suspected of having directly participated in the genocide campaign, particularly in the planning of the massacres committed on the Mataba hill, and in actions perpetrated in the provinces of Ruhengeri, Gisenyi and Ndiza.
Neretsé is also suspected of having denounced several Tutsi families trying to escape from Rwanda in the early days of the genocide, so determining their capture and subsequent execution. According to some witnesses, he was present when the executions were carried out. He is in particular accused of having caused the death of a Belgian national, Claire Beckers, who on 9 April 1994 was trying to escape from Kigali with her husband Isaïe Bucyana and her daughter Katia. Upon information allegedly provided by Neretsé, the Belgian-Rwandan family was arrested at a roadblock and summarily executed.
After the end of the genocide Neretsé fled to France where, in order not to be recognized, he used a fake name. He settled in Angouleme, where he lived quietly as Fabien Nsabimana until 2011. He become actively involved in the social life of his neighborhood, and he addressed to the Prefect of the town a report containing some proposals to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency.
Procedure
The “Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda” (CPCR), a French NGO, filed a complaint against him already in 2000, but the subsequent investigations were discontinued because he was not found on the French territory.
On 8 August 2007, Martin Ngoga, Attorney General of the Republic of Rwanda, indicted Neretsé on six counts, including genocide and criminal conspiracy. He addressed the indictment and an arrest warrant to France, requesting Neretsé extradition. The arrest warrant was also circulated through Interpol.
The “Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda” (CPCR) filed on 2008 a new complaint against Neretsé in Paris. A criminal file was then opened against him also in France.
On 24 June 2011, the Belgian Judge Jean Coumans issued a separate European arrest warrant against Fabien Neretsé for the death of Claire Beckers and her family.
On 29 June 2011, the French authorities arrested Neretsé. On 30 June 2011, due to a cooperation agreement between France and Belgium, two Belgian investigators went to Angouleme in order to question him.
On 30 August 2011, the French Judges in charge of the case decided to hand over Neretsé to Belgium, where the criminal investigations were at a more advanced stage.
The trial of Fabien Neretsé started on 4 November 2019 with the composition of the jury and the hearings on the merits began on 7 November 2019. Neretsé was on trial for genocide and the war crime of murder, including the murder of Belgium citizen Claire Beckers and her family and other attempted murders.
On 19 December 2019, the Brussels Criminal Court found Fabien Neretsé guilty of genocide and war crimes and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. On 27 May 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment.