A London-based Rwandan doctor is facing the first criminal case brought in the UK over alleged offences committed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Vincent Brown, formerly Vincent Bajinya, was charged on September 21 with seven offences after a seven-year investigation by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team.
The 65-year-old faces one count of conduct ancillary to genocide and six counts of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity, and is due before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the charges followed a review of evidence gathered by the War Crimes Team. Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS's Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said prosecutors had determined that the legal test for bringing charges had been met.
“The charges relate to allegations that Dr Brown took part in the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994,” Ferguson said. “He is alleged to have directed and incited acts of murder and genocide carried out by others.”
The CPS said the case is the first in the UK involving charges relating to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The investigation was opened in September 2019 after the Rwandan government formally asked British authorities to look into people suspected of involvement in the killings in Kigali’s Rugenge district in April 1994.
The Metropolitan Police described the inquiry as “a complex and extensive seven-year investigation”. Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: “This case demonstrates the UK is not a safe haven for individuals suspected of committing international crimes.
“The War Crimes Teams remains committed to ensuring those suspected of involvement in genocide and other atrocity crimes are held accountable through due legal process.
“A number of other investigations remain ongoing into other individuals in the UK for similar offences related to the genocide in Rwanda.”
The genocide lasted about 100 days, with an estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, killed by Hutu extremists. Those targeted included members of the Tutsi minority and political opponents, regardless of their ethnic origin.
Forces that took control of Rwanda after the genocide were also alleged to have killed thousands of Hutu people in retaliation.
Brown was first arrested in 2006, but a UK court rejected a request to extradite him to Rwanda in 2017. The case involved four other men whose extraditions were also refused.
Brown, who was born in Kigali, has lived in London, where he previously worked for a charity supporting refugee nurses and midwives seeking employment in Britain. He is believed to have entered the UK as an asylum seeker in 1998.
Former Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama made the disclosure about Brown's arrival in Britain to the Associated Press in 2006. His lawyer, Philip Eldin-Taylor, said at the time that Brown changed his name after becoming a British citizen in 2004.
Police said inquiries into several other people in Britain suspected of involvement in the Rwandan genocide are continuing.
Brown is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.