The Québec superior court will decide on Monday whether Leon Mugesera suspected of inciting the 1994 Genocide will be deported to stand trial in Rwanda.
Yesterday his lawyers had pleaded with the court to adjourn its decision pending a torture review by the UN Committee against torture.
Leon Mugesera, who made an infamous speech in 1992 that is alleged to have played a major role in inciting the genocide two years later, was to be deported last week.
But eleventh-hour appeals to two Canadian courts and the UN Committee against Torture earned him a reprieve until January 20.
After hearing from lawyers for the government and Mugesera, Quebec Superior Court Judge Michel Delorme delayed his decision until Monday.
Canada would like to deport him now while Mugesera’s lawyers are asking for the government to follow a UN request for a six-month delay so that it can probe a claim that he faces persecution at home.
Canadian Montreal Gazette reported that if Delorme decides the issue doesn’t belong in Superior Court, Mugesera, who is in detention after being deemed a flight risk, could be deported, although his lawyers would likely appeal the decision to the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Federal government lawyer Lisa Maziade argued the case belongs in Federal Court and accused Mugesera’s lawyers of “shopping for a stay.”
She said the issue of whether Mugesera will be tortured if returned to his native Rwanda has already been exhaustively examined by the Canadian government so it’s unlikely the UN Committee against Torture, which wants to review the case, will find anything different.
ENDS
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