Rwanda genocide suspect extradited from Norway

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Norway has extradited a man suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to the Great Lakes country, officials in both nations said Friday.

Francois Gasana, 53, was detained in Norway in 2022 by police who said at the time Kigali had accused him of "committing a murder during the 1994 genocide".

An Oslo court ruled the following year that conditions had been met for his extradition. An appeal was later rejected and his extradition confirmed in June this year.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed over 100 days of slaughter triggered by the assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994.

Rwanda's National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) spokesperson Faustin Nkusi confirmed that Gasana had returned to the country "following his extraction from the Kingdom of Norway".

He was "convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison by Nyange Gacaca Court for his role in the crime of genocide," Nkusi said in a statement.

In the aftermath of the genocide, Rwanda established the people's "gacaca" courts across the country, in which attackers faced their victims.

Nkusi said that Gasana had lived during the genocide in Western Province and attended the Save Secondary school. But the statement gave no further details.

He said that Gasana had found his own lawyer, explaining that upon a suspect's return "the Gacaca rulings are declared null and a trial starts afresh".

It was unclear when the trial would begin.

Nkusi praised Norway "for the extraction of genocide fugitives, continued cooperation in matters of mutual legal assistance and contribution to the global effort to fight impunity".

Ahishakiye Naphtal, executive secretary of the genocide survivors' group, Ibuka, welcomed the news.

Gasana was a young man who "due to the genocide ideology he had been fed on... committed such heinous crimes," he said.

However, he said that many more suspects remained at large abroad and urged other nations to act like Norway.

Norwegian authorities confirmed the extradition, saying in a statement it was "in accordance with the final decision made by the king in council on 24 June 2025".

Norway has seen a string of extradition requests for genocide suspects in recent years and is among half a dozen Western countries where courts have handed down convictions since 2009.