(dpa/NAN)

A key suspect in the 1994 Rwandan genocide was on Wednesday due to hear whether he is to be handed over to an international court.

Felicien Kabuga, born in 1933 or 1935, was tracked down to an apartment in a Paris suburb last month after more than 20 years on the run.

A United Nations court wants to try him on charges including genocide, complicity in genocide, incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors allege that he chaired a radio station that orchestrated killings and that he was involved in setting up a genocidal militia in the capital, Kigali.

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More than 800,000 Rwandans, members of the Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus, who tried to protect them, were killed in the genocide.

Kabuga appeared before the Instruction Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal in a wheelchair last week for a procedural hearing.

He denounced the accusations against him as “lies” and pleaded to be released on bail as he was “very sick’’.

If the Paris court approves his extradition to the custody of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, he can appeal to France’s top court, the Court of Cassation.