Written by Were Kelly
Norway has extradited Francois Gasana, a man accused of participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, marking another step in international cooperation to bring genocide fugitives to justice.
Gasana, 53, was arrested in Norway in 2022 following accusations from Kigali that he had committed murder during the genocide. In 2023, an Oslo court ruled that conditions for extradition had been met. An appeal was dismissed earlier this year, and the Norwegian government confirmed the extradition on June 24, 2025.
Rwanda’s National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) spokesperson Faustin Nkusi confirmed Gasana’s arrival in Kigali, saying he had been “convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison by Nyange Gacaca Court for his role in the crime of genocide.”
The gacaca system—community-based courts established after the genocide—allowed perpetrators to face their victims and offer testimony, though Nkusi clarified that rulings against extradited suspects are nullified to allow for a new trial. Gasana has retained his own legal counsel, but no trial date has been announced.
Nkusi commended Norway for its “continued cooperation in matters of mutual legal assistance and contribution to the global effort to fight impunity.”
The 1994 genocide claimed the lives of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over a 100-day period, triggered by the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana. Gasana, then a young man living in Rwanda’s Western Province and a student at Save Secondary School, is accused of participating in killings driven by extremist ideology.
Ahishakiye Naphtal, executive secretary of the survivors’ organization Ibuka, welcomed the extradition, describing Gasana as “a young man who, due to the genocide ideology he had been fed on, committed such heinous crimes.” He urged other countries to follow Norway’s example, noting that many genocide fugitives remain abroad.
Norway has become one of a handful of Western nations to hand down convictions for Rwandan genocide suspects since 2009, responding to multiple extradition requests in recent years. Its latest move underscores a growing global push to ensure that no perpetrator evades justice, regardless of time or distance.
