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Hunt for one of Africa’s most-wanted men ends in a Paris suburb

Published

4 years ago

May 23, 2020

Hunt for one of Africa’s most-wanted men ends in a Paris suburb

He was one of the world’s most wanted men, who evaded capture for more than 25 years over his alleged role in the Rwandan genocide.

But this week Félicien Kabuga appeared in court after being arrested in a dawn raid on an apartment in a Parisian suburb by French police officers dressed in black combat uniforms.

One of the longest-running manhunts ended with the octogenarian Mr Kabuga in custody. He was indicted in 1997 on seven counts of genocide for his alleged involvement in the killing three years earlier of more than 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsi Rwandans. But despite a $5m US bounty for his detention, he went on to evade international justice for two decades.

Once one of Rwanda’s richest men, in 1994 Mr Kabuga part-owned Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines, the broadcaster whose radio transmissions, prosecutors allege, co-ordinated the government-backed Hutu killing squads attacking the minority Tutsi population during 100 bloody days. Mr Kabuga allegedly personally called for the extermination of ethnic Tutsis during meetings in the months before the genocide and also helped to finance the killing, according to the charges against him.

“I saw him often in the mornings, walking in small, shuffling steps. He often wore a hat, and gloves,” said Sebastian Tran, a neighbour who lived close to the third-floor apartment where the now frail Mr Kabuga was apprehended last weekend. “There was usually someone following about five feet behind. I always thought it was his son.”

Relatives of Mr Kabuga were at the Paris courthouse on Wednesday for his initial extradition hearing © Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

The UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which took control of the case in 2015 when the court established to try Rwandan genocide crimes was closed down, petitioned on Wednesday to have Mr Kabuga transferred to temporarily to its branch at The Hague.

Law enforcement agencies and prosecution services from nine countries contributed to the arrest, it said. Mr Kabuga’s lawyer, who this week told French media that his client was innocent until proven guilty, did not respond to a request for comment.

Colonel Eric Emeraux, head of the French police unit that deals with genocide and war crimes, said the first tip-off suggesting Mr Kabuga was either in Belgium or France came from UK police at a meeting with authorities from those countries at the start of the year.

British officers had noticed that one of Mr Kabuga’s adult children travelled regularly from the UK to France and Belgium. Using mobile phone data, the French authorities tracked the person’s regular visits to the Asnières-sur-Seine suburb where Mr Kabuga was later found. Other family members were also identified frequenting the area. After France’s coronavirus lockdown was introduced, one of them continued to visit the apartment that was eventually raided.

“Operations are like that. You pull on one thread and it keeps getting longer. The more you pull the more you find there is something interesting at the end,” Col Emeraux said.

The French police confirmed Mr Kabuga’s identity following the arrest using a DNA sample collected when he had evaded capture in Germany in 2007 after receiving medical care, Col Emeraux said. The authorities could not yet confirm when Mr Kabuga had entered France.

“For us, among the most wanted people on the planet you had two,” the police colonel added. “You had [Osama] Bin Laden, who is now dead . . . And then there was Félicien Kabuga, who was number two.”

Still his sudden arrest, after many Rwandans had given up hope of justice, has also raised questions about how he evaded the authorities for so many years, particularly living in one of Europe’s biggest cities.

Colonel Eric Emeraux of the French Gendarmerie’s Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes © Benoit Tessier/Reuters

“I wonder how he can have been in France for this long without being detected,” said Kayumba Nyamwasa, a Tutsi former Rwandan spy chief turned opposition leader, who now lives in exile in South Africa. Mr Nyamwasa served as chief of staff in the Rwandan army after the genocide and then ambassador to India, before breaking with President Paul Kagame in 2010.

Mr Nyamwasa said that after the genocide Mr Kabuga had fled to Kenya, where several efforts were made to secure his arrest. In one attempt an FBI informant reportedly set up a sting operation, but when officers arrived to make the arrest Mr Kabuga was not there and the informant was dead.

Mr Nyamwasa also noted that the arrest had come after a period of “rapprochement” between Kigali and Paris. Since 1994, Rwanda has repeatedly questioned France’s own role in the genocide.

France was a close ally of the Hutu-led government of president Juvenal Habyarimana prior to 1994. Rwanda has accused UN-backed French troops in the country of allowing soldiers and officers responsible for the genocide to escape during a humanitarian mission to protect civilians.

Under President Emmanuel Macron, who has sought to strengthen France’s position in Africa, relations with Kigali have improved. In 2018, Louise Mushikiwabo, the former Rwandan foreign minister, was appointed to head the influential association of French-speaking countries, the International Organisation of La Francophonie, with the full backing of the Elysée Palace. And last April, Mr Macron opened a full investigation into France’s role in the genocide.

Three months later the operation to find Mr Kabuga was relaunched, Col Emeraux said. The Elysée declined to comment and the Rwandan presidency did not respond to a request for comment.

“There is an ambiguous history between France and the Rwandan genocide and its pursuit of those involved,” said William Bourdon, a Paris-based lawyer and human rights specialist.

“What’s sure is that there is a history of complicity between France and Rwanda . . . but now the wind has changed,” he added. “It has changed late but it has changed.”

This story has been corrected to state that the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has asked for Mr Kabuga to be to transferred to its branch at The Hague, not to the International Criminal Court at The Hague

(Note: This is a Article Automatically Generated Through Syndication, Here is The Original Source

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Jeff Bezos Lookalike Cagdas Halicilar Enjoys Lavish Lifestyle By Impersonating The Billionaire

Published

11 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Subhashree Panda

Jeff Bezos Lookalike Cagdas Halicilar Enjoys Lavish Lifestyle By Impersonating The Billionaire

A 46-year-old German man, Cagdas Halicilar, is currently the talk of the town as he has emerged on the internet as Jeff Bezos’ lookalike.

Thus, Cagdas Halicilar has transformed his profession into a professional Jeff Bezos doppleganger from an electrician.

The 46-year-old reveals that now he lives an opulent lifestyle as an entrepreneur.

Cagdas Halicilar was often told by his family and friends that his looks were similar to those of a billionaire. However, only when he saw Jeff Bezos’ picture, did he understand what people around him meant.

The New York Post reported that Halicilar dreamed of becoming a successful business executive. With him founding CB Transporte, a transport company, he lived his dream.

After accepting his resemblance to Jeff Bezos, Cagdas Halicilar enrolled himself at a doppelgänger agency.

Cagdas Halicilar Gained Popularity by Being Jeff Bezos’ Lookalike

Most of the time, he dressed up in casual attire which made him look more like a billionaire, as Jeff Bezos also dressed up casually.

Halicilar added, “It doesn’t matter whether I’m wearing a suit or wearing jeans and a polo shirt.”

He added how it requires a bit of effort to maintain his appearance like a billionaire. He shaves his head and applies Nivea cream regularly. The German doppleganger added that he has been doing the same for more than ten years now.

The 46-year-old has gained a lot of popularity and recognition over the years for his work as Jeff Bezos’s doppelgänger. His spouse complained that people often stopped him and asked for selfies on the street.

In the “King of Stonks,” the German Netflix miniseries, he also had a guest spot.

When in Seattle once, Cagdas Halicilar strolled through the Amazon campus. Surprisingly, Amazon employees thought that he was Jeff Bezos, reported TimesNow.

He said,

“All the Amazon employees came to me, wanted selfies and thanked me for being proud to work at Amazon.”

Furthermore, he added,

“My wish is to drink a whiskey with Jeff Bezos on his yacht. He is just as much of a yacht fanatic as I am.”

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Business

Lawsuit Claims Cinemark Shortchanged Customers on Sold Beverages

Published

17 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Manoj Nair

Lawsuit Claims Cinemark Shortchanged Customers on Sold Beverages

A North Texas movie-goer has filed a lawsuit over Plano-based Cinemark drink sizes.

The lawsuit alleges that the movie theater chain fleeced its customers by shorting beverages sold in the chain’s canteens.

The chain loudly advertised that the 24-ounce container is a better deal, claiming consumers will get more for less price, while the reality is that Cinemark swindles customers by shortchanging them on sales for the 24-ounce beverage cup.

Cinemark Accused of Shortchanging Customers on Beverage Sales

The proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in a Texas federal court and it indicts the movie.

The lawsuit further details how consumers got only 22 ounces of liquid, which is the maximum that can be filled in Cinemark’s 24-ounce cups.

It is alleged that the deception was part of a deliberate packaging and pricing practice.

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Theaters pay almost 50% of the revenue generated by ticket sales to the studios but keep all the profits generated by the sales of food and beverage.

Increased competition has pushed the chain to offer concessions and bonuses, and this helped Cinemark in 2023 to record its highest concession sales of all time.

However, the lawsuit alleges that Cinemark dupes its customers by shortchanging them on sales for the 24-ounce beverage cup instead of the 20-ounce beverage cup.

The reality is that consumers pay less for a 20-ounce cup, which is also a better deal than buying a 24-ounce beverage cup.

The complaint stated,

“The size of the container in relation to the actual volume of the product contained in it was intended to mislead the consumer into believing the consumer was getting more of the product than what was in the container by a twelfth.”

The lawsuit was brought by Texas resident Shane Waldrop, who purchased a 24-ounce beverage cup in February which cost him $8.80 before tax.

However, on closer look, he realized that the cup was not large enough to hold 24 ounces. This was confirmed later when Shane took the cup home and found that it could contain only 22 ounces of liquid.

Thus, the consumer was duped 2 ounces for every cup he bought.

The lawsuit charged the movie theater chain with neglectful falsification, deception, unjust profiteering, and a violation of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act and asked for a court order to halt such practices.

Waldrop is seeking compensatory damages and also demanded a jury trial over the claims.

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Business

Mukesh Ambani’s 67th Birthday: How He Built The Reliance Industries

Published

17 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Manoj Nair

It is Mukesh Ambani’s 67th birthday, and today we will try to get to know about the incredible journey of this man who, with sheer determination and grit, has created one of the biggest conglomerates in the world.

Reliance Industries, which passed into his hands in the 2000s, grew at a pace which was phenomenal.

Born on April 19 to Dhirubhai Ambani and Kokilaben in Aden, Yemen, where his father was based before moving back to India.

Reliance Industries was already a big company, but its growth after Mukesh Ambani took on the reins was phenomenal.

With astute business acumen and strategic vision, Ambani has propelled Reliance Industries to dizzying heights, making it one of India’s most powerful empires.

It was under his stewardship that Reliance Industries diversified from being a petroleum company to enter other fields like Telecommunication and the Aerospace industry.

The 5G revolution, which has swept the country, is largely due to the efforts of Mukesh Ambani and his company Jio. Jio offered high-speed and cheap internet services to the farthest corners of the company, and this helped it to capture a major chunk of the telecommunication sector. Today the nation’s population is using internet data in an unprecedented way.

Another diversification move was the entry of Reliance Industries into retail, energy, petrochemicals, and media. Reliance also acquired and invested in Future Group’s retail assets, as well as the creation of JioMart, an e-commerce venture.

Reliance also entered into a partnership with the Indian media company Viacom18 and the American entertainment giant Disney to create a joint venture, valued at $8.5 billion. The venture also gave exclusive rights to Reliance to distribute Disney productions in India.

It is his futuristic vision which catalyzed Reliance Industries to invest heavily in the renewable energy sector. The company has built solar and wind energy farms and is contributing in a big way to help India achieve its renewable energy targets while lowering carbon emissions and environmental impact.

Again, it is his futuristic views which made him create the Jio Institute, which is a truly world-class educational institution dedicated to cutting-edge research and technical improvement. The stated motto of the institute is to help develop future leaders and innovators who will help the country grow to become a developed nation in the coming decades.

The phenomenal growth and success of Reliance Industry can be attributed to Mukesh’s keen sense to anticipate market trends, evolve as per changing consumer preferences, seize emerging possibilities, and produce products and services of the highest quality.

As of April 19, 2024, according to Forbes, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is to the tune of $115.8 billion, and he is ranked one of the top 10 wealthiest people in the world on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires in 2021, 2022, and 2023.