Charles Bandora, the first genocide suspect extradited to Rwanda by a European country, was handed over to the Rwandan authorities in Kigali on March 10 this year.
The judge reasoned that there was a risk the accused would flee, according to Rwandan daily New Times. He said the former businessman was accused of serious crimes, and had not given himself up voluntarily to judicial authorities.
The prosecutor describes Bandora as an influential member of the former ruling party MRND of the late president Juvénal Habyarimana. Bandora is accused of participating in training Interahamwe militia in the Bugesera region (eastern Rwanda) and supervising massacres of Tutsis there in 1994.
Rwanda requested his extradition in 2008. However, its request for Sadi Bugingo, another Rwandan living in Norway, was turned down on grounds that Bugingo had obtained Norwegian nationality. Bugingo was tried in Norway and sentenced in February to 21 years in jail.
ER/JC