MONTREAL — Despite a deportation order, a Rwandan man accused of helping to incite the 1994 genocide may be staying put for now.
Leon Mugesera was ordered to be deported earlier today after a Federal Court ruled against his last-ditch effort to stay in the country he’s called home for nearly two decades.
But a pair of other developments today have complicated matters.
Mugesera’s lawyer says the United Nations Committee Against Torture has ordered Canada to keep him here while it investigates his claims he’ll be tortured in Rwanda.
Meanwhile, Mugesera has been brought to hospital to be treated for an unspecified health issue. Television images show him being carried out of his Quebec City home, laid out on a stretcher.
Mugesera faces deportation as early as tomorrow to Rwanda, where he is wanted on outstanding charges.
His lawyer, Johanne Doyon, says that in the past Canada has generally heeded the wishes of the UN body but she says she has not received any confirmation yet in the current case.
The Quebec City man is accused of helping to incite Rwanda’s genocide by delivering a 1992 speech that promoted the killing of ethnic Tutsis.
He has been involved in a lengthy legal battle with Canada to stay here — a battle that wound up before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2005.