THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An aged former radio station proprietor appeared Wednesday in a United Nations courtroom the place his lawyer entered not responsible pleas to allegations that he armed militias with machetes and different weapons and incited them to participate in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

It was the primary time Félicien Kabuga had appeared earlier than the U.N.’s Worldwide Residual Mechanism for Legal Tribunals since he was transferred to The Hague following his arrest outdoors Paris in Could.

Kabuga, 85, sat in a wheelchair in courtroom, flanked by two guards. He’s charged with crimes together with genocide, complicity in genocide, incitement to genocide, persecution and extermination. He faces a most life sentence if convicted.

Kabuga didn’t reply in courtroom to the fees, however his lawyer, Emmanuel Altit, requested Presiding Choose Iain Bonomy to “contemplate his non-response as a plea of not responsible on all counts.” Bonomy formally entered not responsible pleas.

Kabuga appeared to pay attention intently, typically fiddling with the blue medical face masks he wore, as a courtroom official learn out his 18-page indictment.

Prosecutor Serge Brammertz mentioned his group goals to file a streamlined, amended indictment by mid-January as his employees work to trace down witnesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The mechanism, which has branches in The Hague and the Tanzanian metropolis of Arusha, was set as much as cope with instances remaining from two momentary tribunals that prosecuted crimes from the Rwandan genocide and the Balkan wars.

Kabuga was despatched to The Hague as a substitute of Arusha in order that he might endure an in depth medical evaluation amid considerations about his well being.

The mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a airplane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the chief who, like nearly all of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.

The Tutsi minority was blamed for downing the airplane. Bands of Hutu extremists started slaughtering the Tutsi, with assist from the military, police, and militias. The genocide left lifeless 800,000 Tutsis and average Hutus who tried to guard them.

In line with his indictment, first issued in 1997 and up to date in 2011, Kabuga and others operated the RTLM radio station and used its broadcasts to inflame ethnic hatred towards Tutsis. He is also accused of instructing and aiding members of the so-called Interahamwe militia liable for killing individuals recognized as Tutsis within the Kigali, Kibuye and Gisenyi prefectures of Rwanda.

He additionally allegedly established a Nationwide Protection Fund to supply monetary and logistical assist to the Interahamwe and is accused of founding a bunch known as Kabuga’s Interahamwe.