Rwanda has formally requested the extradition of a Rwandan national from Sweden a month after he was detained on suspicion of crimes against humanity in Rwanda, a Swedish Justice Ministry official said Monday, according to dpa. Sylvere Ahorugeze is suspected of committing crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and was allegedly involved in killing some 25 people from the same family. Rwandan authorities have sent 130 pages of documents and statements supporting the allegations against Ahorugeze, 52, legal adviser Ashraf Ahmed told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The documents were initially to be translated - a process likely to take 20 days - before the Prosecution Authority was to present its case against Ahorugeze within 8 days to a Swedish district court, Ahmed said. If the district court upholds his detention, the Supreme Court is to rule on the extradition suggesting a pending decision by late October, said Ahmed, of the division for criminal cases and international judicial cooperation. Ahorugeze was detained a month ago after Swedish police were alerted by staff at the Rwandan embassy in Sweden. He has lived in neighbouring Denmark for several years and had accompanied his wife to the embassy where she was trying to renew identification papers at the time of his arrest. Danish authorities held him over similar suspicions, but he was subsequently released and awarded damages when a special prosecutor dropped the case. The 1994 Rwanda genocide is estimated to have claimed the lives of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
