On December 6, Canada's Immigration Ministry handed down an 80-page decision that stated Mugesera's life would not be in danger if he was returned to his home country to stand trial. It came six years after the Supreme Court restored the decision to return Mugesera to Rwanda, citing reasonable grounds to believe he committed a crime against humanity.
However, the deportation wasn't immediately enforced because he could have faced torture and death in his own country.
Rwanda dropped the death penalty in 2007.
In 2011, the European Human Rights Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) each delivered landmark rulings which might have impacted the Immigration's Ministry decision. Each tribunal found the country's courts can now provide sufficient independence and impartiality and its jails are safe enough for prisoners.
Mugesera's lawyer will ask for a delay and launch a last-ditch appeal in Federal Court on Monday.
In November 1992, Mugesera delivered a speech urging Hutus to send Tutsis back to their "home country, Ethiopia", using Nyabarongo River.
ER/GF
© Hirondelle News Agency