Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, arrested this month after more than two decades on the run, told a French court on Wednesday that the international charges against him were lies.
Kabuga has been indicted by UN prosecutors for genocide and incitement to commit genocide, among other charges. He is accused of bankrolling and arming the ethnic Hutu militias which killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over 100 days in 1994.
Asked if he understood the charges, Kabuga told the court through an interpreter: "All of this is lies. I have not killed any Tutsis. I was working with them."
Kabuga was arrested in a Paris suburb on May 16. His lawyers told the court he should be released under court supervision because of his age and ill-health, and that the results of a DNA test used to identify him should be annulled as he had not given consent.