Today is a bad day for genocide survivors. The dismissal of the appeal against finding Félicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial marks a devastating blow to justice for those of us who survived the genocide.

As the financier of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Kabuga bears responsibility for the slaughter of over one million innocent men, women, and children. Yet thanks to the Appeals Chamber ruling, this architect of genocide will likely never face true justice or accountability for his crimes.

The rejection of the “alternative finding procedure” that would have allowed proceedings to continue despite Kabuga’s health also slams the door on any meaningful chance for victims to see the evidence presented against Kabuga in court.

After decades of waiting, survivors are left with mere allegations and no formal judicial airing of Kabuga’s role in funding and enabling the genocide. This outcome represents a massive failure of justice.

The decision sends a terrible message – that with enough money and influence, even an accused architect of genocide can evade justice. That if you are powerful enough, you are untouchable. This is an affront to the survivors of the genocide, who have waited decades to see justice.

The failure to try Kabuga despite his alleged health challenges stands in stark contrast to how his victims – young and old alike – were shown no mercy in 1994.

My own uncle, a 91-year-old man named Balthazar Mirimo, was brutally murdered during the genocide. Age was no protection. But for Kabuga, age is seemingly a perfect shield. I feel a profound sense of frustration that someone like Kabuga can escape trial simply by living long enough. Old age should not be justification for impunity.

Today, justice has been denied for the 1 million murdered innocent Tutsi and moderate Hutus who opposed the genocide.

But, at the very least, Kabuga’s assets, accumulated through corruption and used to fund genocide, should be seized. I applaud the efforts of survivors’ groups like Ibuka Rwanda, which filed a reparations lawsuit in June this year to freeze Kabuga’s assets in Rwanda. But what of the wealth he has hidden overseas all these years?

The international court must do more to identify and seize Kabuga’s hidden fortunes abroad, which should be used to provide some measure of redress to his countless victims.

One overlooked issue is the lack of transparency surrounding the Rwandan government’s management of assets within Rwanda formerly owned by Kabuga and other genocide fugitives. But that’s a whole separate conversation.

These properties, taken over after the genocide, generate revenue flowing into the National Bank’s “Abandoned Properties” account for the past 30 years. Survivors raised concerns about the lack of transparency around these funds, which should serve as reparations for them. But instead of distributing the assets to victims, they have disappeared into state coffers without accountability.

In addition to seizing Kabuga’s foreign accounts, justice demands coming clean about mismanaging his Rwanda-based properties. These rightfully belong to genocide survivors, not the state

Reparations can never make genocide survivors whole again. But financial penalties targeting Kabuga’s assets, even in the absence of a trial, can send a strong message that genocidaires will pay a price – no matter how long they evade justice. For the survivors still grieving loved ones until today, this small reckoning will have to serve where criminal judgment could not. Ends

Read the appeals court decision here