UK charges London man with orchestrating Rwanda genocide killings in first such case

British prosecutors on Monday charged a 65-year-old man with orchestrating killings during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, marking the first such case brought in the UK.
Vincent Brown, a former resident of Rwanda’s capital Kigali now living in London, was arrested and charged with one count of being an accessory to genocide and six counts of aiding crimes against humanity, according to the Crown Prosecution Service and London police. Prosecutors allege he “directed and incited acts of murder and genocide carried out by others” against the Tutsi, said Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counterterrorism division .
Brown, a British citizen formerly known as Vincent Bajinya, is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. The charges follow a seven-year investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes team, launched in 2019 at Rwanda’s request, focusing on alleged atrocities in Kigali’s Rugenge district in April 1994 .
Approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsi and moderate Hutu, were killed in the 100-day genocide. Brown had previously been arrested in 2006 and 2013 under a Rwandan warrant, but UK courts rejected extradition requests . Commander Helen Flanagan of the Met’s counterterrorism unit said the case demonstrates that the UK is “not a safe haven” for those suspected of international crimes .
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