Rwanda War-crimes Suspect Deported

Published January 24, 2012 3:45AM (EST)

MONTREAL (AP) — A Rwandan man has been deported from Canada for allegedly helping incite Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Leon Mugesera was taken to an airport in Montreal by Canadian border-services agents and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo later confirmed in a twitter account note on Monday that he had left on a plane bound for Kigali, Rwanda's capital. Canadian officials did not comment.

Mugesera, 59, had been living in Canada for nearly two decades and was wanted in Rwanda on charges stemming from the 1994 massacre.

A former Rwandan political operative, Mugesera delivered a fiery anti-Tutsi speech in the leadup to the 1994 genocide. In that 1992 speech, he referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches" and called for their extermination.

He is among the first Western refugee claimants to be sent back to face charges.


By Salon Staff

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