Norway has agreed to become the first country outside Africa to try a Rwandan genocide suspect, BBC Online reports Wednesday.
The backlogged UN court set up to try those responsible for the 1994 killings is to transfer the defendant from its base in Arusha, Tanzania.
Michel Bagaragaza was head of the Rwandan tea industry and is accused of organising his staff into a militia.
The tribunals chief prosecutor said that three other European countries had also agreed to hear some cases. An estimated 800.000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the genocide.
Prosecutor Hassan Jallow told the BBC the European states were picked for their standards of justice and because they did not impose the death penalty, which the tribunal does not allow.
This stand has angered Rwanda, which has repeatedly demanded that the accused be transferred to its jurisdiction. But this option has not been acceptable to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), as Rwanda will not repeal (ophæve) the death penalty.
The defence has agreed to Mr Bagaragazas case being heard in Norway, where he will be imprisoned if found guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison if convicted.
Mr Bagaragaza is accused of working with tea factory workers to kill Tutsis who had sought refuge in the north-western Gisenyi region.
He was seen as being close to Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death in a plane crash on 6 April, 1994, sparked the 100-day massacres. Since the Arusha tribunal started in 1997, the ICTR has convicted 23 suspects and acquitted three. The court is due to be disbanded in 2008, adds BBC.
