Finnish genocide trial in Rwanda

Mr Bazaramba is following proceedings via a video link from Finland

A Finnish court has moved to Rwanda to hear evidence in the genocide trial of a former Rwandan preacher who moved to the Scandinavian country in 2003.

Finland has charged Francois Bazaramba with genocide and 15 counts of murder in Rwanda in 1994.

Finnish law allows prosecutions for crimes against humanity wherever they are committed.

If found guilty, Mr Bazaramba, 58, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He denies all the charges.

'Enough evidence'

The Finnish court began sitting in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, on Tuesday.

Witness accounts were being heard "behind closed doors" in a hired office, a Rwandan judicial source was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Some 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda's genocide

The source added that Rwandan judicial officials were not allowed into the hearings.

Mr Bazaramba is following proceedings via video link from Finland.

The Finnish court is expected to spend about a month in Rwanda.

Mr Bazaramba has been seeking asylum in Finland since 2003 after arriving from Zambia. He has been held in detention since 2007.

Finnish prosecutors have said they have enough evidence to try Mr Bazaramba, rather than extradite him to Rwanda where they fear he may not get a fair hearing.

The Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is still operating, but several other countries - including Canada and France - have tried genocide suspects.

Rwandan authorities accuse Mr Bazaramba, a Hutu, of having participated in planning, leading and carrying out the massacre of 5,000 Tutsis while the head of the Union of Baptist Churches of Rwanda (UEBR) in the municipality Nyakizu in southern Rwanda.

In the Rwandan genocide, about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias after the assassination of the Hutu president.