Facts
Jean Chrysostome Budengeri is suspected of having participated in the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda 1994. Budengeri arrived in Norway as a refugee through the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in 2006. He became a Norwegian citizen in 2014. The investigation against him started in November 2017.
Procedure
On 5 June 2018, he was arrested by the National Criminal Investigation Service – commonly known as Kripos – on suspicion of having participated in the killing of a large number of people, mainly Tutsi, during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Officers from Kripos have traveled to Rwanda several times, including in 2019, to investigate the suspect’s alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide.
In May 2019, Jean Chrysostome Budengeri’s defense lawyer requested an independent review of Kripos’ investigation by the Attorney-General.
According to the defense, witness interviews and their translations were strewn with discrepancies, including incriminating statements that were not made by the witnesses. In November 2019 the Attorney General concluded that the allegations from the defense did not have sufficient grounds.
On 27 September 2019, for unrelated reasons, Budengeri was released from pretrial detention on the condition that he reports to the police twice a week.