The Rwandan government has dropped the death penalty for convicted war criminals, removing a major hurdle to the deportation of genocide suspects hiding out in countries like Canada.

The decision could unblock the deportation of Leon Mugesera, a Rwandan who remains in Canada more than two years after the Supreme Court ordered him out for a 1992 speech inciting the massacre of Tutsis.

Leon Mugesera, seen in 2000, may face deportation back to Rwanda now that the Rwandan goverment has dropped the death penalty for convicted war criminals.
(Clement Allard/Canadian Press)

Canada would not deport Mugesera or other war crime suspects to Rwanda as long as they faced the likelihood of execution or any other cruel and unusual punishment.

Two prominent Canadians who push for war crimes justice say legal limbo could end for many suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"Canada has taken certain actions, but there are undoubtedly other individuals who could be extradited because the risk they would be punished by capital punishment has disappeared," said Senator Romeo Dallaire, a retired Canadian military commander who witnessed the massacre and has become a prominent anti-genocide activist.

"There are cases in Europe and North America that could be unblocked by this, where people could be moved to Rwanda to face justice," Dallaire told the Canadian Press, adding that Mugesera could be among them.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement Friday that the decision should make "further progress in bringing to justice those responsible for the heinous crimes of the 1994 genocide."

Rwandan officials said the law proposed by President Paul Kagame was to take effect last Wednesday. 

Hutu extremist fled to Canada in 1993

Mugesera and his Quebec City lawyer, Guy Bertrand, declined an interview request on Monday. Bertrand's secretary passed along a message, saying "as long as the case is still pending, there won't be any interviews. We're still waiting."

Mugesera and his lawyer have maintained in the past that Mugesera and his family face persecution and death in Rwanda.

Federal officials in Ottawa said they can't comment on specific cases like Mugesera's delayed deportation.

Marina Wilson, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said Canada does "not deport to countries that have the death penalty, where the individual might face execution."

But Wilson pointed out a person can face other forms of persecution in his home country that could delay deportation.

Human Rights Watch issued a report last week condemning Rwandan police for killing 20 people in custody since November, including several suspects in the 1994 mass slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.

Mugesera was a prominent Hutu extremist in 1992, when he gave a speech to 1,000 political supporters, telling them they faced a choice of exterminating the Tutsis or being exterminated by them.

The Supreme Court of Canada found he suggested Hutus should send Tutsi bodies to Rwanda via the Nyabarongo River, a process that was already taking place on a small scale in 1992 and was ramped up dramatically in 1994.

The Supreme Court found that Mugesera knew he was inciting violence and hatred because small-scale massacres of Tutsis were already taking place.

Officials in Rwanda had tried to arrest Mugesera for his speech, but he fled to Canada in 1993.

Ottawa began proceedings to remove him, his wife and their five children in 1995 after officials learned of the speech. A series of appeals ended with the Supreme Court ruling in 2005.

Wilson said there are sometimes long delays before deportations with appeals and risk assessments of the country of origin. Federal officials said Monday those final processes are not open to the public.

Canada has gone ahead with its own prosecution of a suspected Rwandan war criminal. Désiré Munyaneza is on trial in Montreal for crimes against humanity, including rape and murder.

His trial is expected to resume in September after a summer break. The RCMP has several other investigations underway.