A woman suspected of involvement in the 1994 Rwanda genocide will appear before judges in The Hague on Monday. Yvonne N. (surname withheld) is denying all charges, according to her lawyer, Victor Koppe.

The session is only the formal start of the case; a preliminary investigation by the public prosecutor is continuing. Judges will focus on whether the woman's detention is to be extended. The prosecutor suspects her of being the driving force behind of a group of young men who pursued Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. She is also suspected of close involvement in the killing of a refugee in a house opposite hers.

Dutch nationality
Yvonne N. fled to the Netherlands in 1998 and obtained Dutch nationality in 2004. She was arrested by police in the southern Dutch town of Reuver on suspicion of acting on the side of Hutu extremists who were carrying out the genocide.

In 2009, a court in The Hague sentenced Rwandan Joseph M. (surname withheld) to 20 years in jail for torture and manslaughter during the 1994 genocide. It was the first Dutch conviction in a Rwanda genocide case.

Over a period of one hundred days in 1994, 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu opponents of the Rwandan regime were killed. The genocide was sparked, fanned and facilitated by the then political, military and business elite.

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