Rwandan rebel leader in ICC custody

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- French authorities responded to an arrest warrant and handed an alleged Rwandan rebel leader to the international courts, the ICC said Tuesday.

French authorities acting on an arrest warrant issued in September by the International Criminal Court transferred alleged Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to the ICC detention center in The Hague.

An ICC statement said Mbarushimana was living in Paris when he was arrested. He is charged with five counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes for atrocities committed in 2009 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ICC said the rebel leader was since July 2007 the executive secretary of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR.

The U.S. Treasury Department, by sanctioning certain FDLR leaders in December, said the rebel group is the one of the most violent armed groups in the Congo. The militant group, as well as members of the Congolese military, was highlighted in a recent U.N. report on mass rapes in the region last summer.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Mbarushimana's detention was symbolic of justice being served in the troubled African region.

"We will not deny justice to the hundreds of victims who suffered the horror of those attacks," he said in a statement.