Facts
Laurent Serubuga was born on 1 January 1939 in the village of Ruhunga, Rwanda.
Serubuga belonged to the circle of the “Comrades of the Fifth of July”, a group of eleven army officers who orchestrated a coup d’état in 1973 in order to bring Juvénal Habyarimana to power. Serubuga quickly became the right-hand man of the new president, and was given the position of Deputy Chief of Staff in the Rwandan Defense Forces – the highest in the army after that of the President. From that moment on, Serubuga was known as Colonel Serubuga.
Allegedly, Serubuga was a member of the “Akazu”, an informal organization close to the President and composed of Hutu extremists. This group is said to have strongly contributed to the genocide of 1994.
As Serubuga’s political and military influence grew, Habyarimana, who felt increasingly threatened, decided to push him into early retirement in 1992.
On 30 April 1994, shortly after the beginning of the genocide, the Ministry of Defense addressed a message to Serubuga, offering him to be reinstated in his former position. Serubuga accepted, and officially rejoined the army on 2 May 1994.
Reportedly, Serubuga supported the self-defense forces, which were perceived as the body in charge of managing the genocide. Serubuga is also accused of having planned the genocide. In particular, he is said to have led attacks in the region of Giciye, although no formal evidence has been presented to support this allegation.
At the end of the genocide, Serubuga fled the country. Reportedly, he first settled in Kenya, then moved to France in 1998.
Once in France, Serubuga, who detained a residence permit, applied for refugee status. In June 2002, the French Refugee Appeals Board denied his request. The Board contended that, although Serubuga’s role in the genocide was unclear, it could not be denied that in his capacity of Deputy Chief of Staff in the Rwandan army, he at least had the knowledge of the mass atrocities perpetrated by the combatants under his command, and did nothing to stop them.
Procedure
On 6 January 2000, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organization in France, the Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH) lodged a complaint against Laurent Serubuga. The Office of the Prosecutor in Strasbourg closed the case on 22 May 2001 for lack of evidence.
On 10 December 2001, the FIDH, the NGO Survie and the Rwandan community of France filed a new complaint before the investigating judges of the Paris High Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris). On 28 June 2002, an investigation was opened against Laurent Serubuga for genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity.
The Rwandan authorities issued an arrest warrant against him in May 2013 and requested his extradition from France. He was arrested on 11 July 2013 in the north of France.
On 12 September 2013, the Investigation Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Paris (Chambre de l’instruction de la Cour d’Appel de Paris) denied the Rwandan extradition request and Laurent Serubuga was released. On 26 February 2014, the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) confirmed this decision.
In early May 2017, Laurent Serubuga was assigned the status of assisted witness (“témoin assisté”). Later that month, the investigating judge within the Paris High Court informed the parties that he had completed his investigation.
The prosecutor’s office is expected to issue its final submissions (requisitions) stating its position regarding the next steps of the proceedings: referral to the Paris Criminal Trial Court (Cour d’Assises de Paris) and if so on what charges, or dismissal of the case.