In 2020, French authorities launched an investigation into BNP Paris for its role in providing financial services to the government of Sudan. The investigation was launched in response to a complaint filed by victims of crimes committed by the government of Sudan between 2002 - 2008.

In part the case in France arose as a result of a a 2014 plea deal with US authorities in which BNP Paribas plead guilty to charges it violated US sanctions by providing financial services to Sudan, Cuba and Iran. Charges in the sanctions case included that BNPP used a system of proxy banks “to process approximately $6.4 billion on behalf of Sudanese sanctioned entities”. As part of the plea deal BNP Paribas admitted the bank had acted for the Sudanese government during the period 2002-2008. BNP Paribas was required to pay a USD $8.9 billion penalty.

“During this period, the government – through its military and security forces and Janjaweed militias –committed widespread human rights violations amounting to international crimes (including torture, crimes against humanity and genocide)against Sudanese civilians. ….tens of thousands of Sudanese activists and ordinary civilians were killed, forcibly displaced from their homes, detained, tortured and subjected to inhumane treatment or raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence.” (FIDH)

The Sudanese victims alleged that “by providing the Sudanese government with credit facilities, allowing the government to export petrol and access foreign money markets, the plaintiffs claim that the bank facilitated the commission of human rights violations amounting to international crimes by the Sudanese government.” (FIDH)

Sources:

BNP Paribas Agrees to Plead Guilty and to Pay $8.9 Billion for Illegally Processing Financial Transactions for Countries Subject to U.S. Economic Sanctions, US Department of Justice, 30 June 2014

Judicial Investigation Opened into BNP Paribas’ Role in Atrocities in Sudan, FIDH, 11 October 2020

“9 victimes soudanaises portent plainte contre BNP Paribas pour complicité de crimes contre l’humanité”, FIDH 26 September 2019

In 2021, two former executives of Swedish oil company Lundin were indicted for aiding and abetting war crimes committed by the government of Sudan during the civil war in the south of the country. The criminal trial of Chairman Ian Lundin and CEO Alexandre Schneiter started in September 2023 and is scheduled to end in 2026.

The Swedish investigation was triggered in 2010 by a report prepared by the Dutch civil society organisation PAX, which documented a link between oil exploration and increasing violence in the war-torn south. The report and subsequent documentation established that between 1997 and 2003, crimes were committed including killings, rape, child abduction, torture, pillage, arson, destruction of schools, markets and clinics were destroyed. An estimated 12,000 people died and 180,000 were forcibly displaced.

At trial, prosecutors have alleged that the defendants provided logistical support to the government of Sudan forces, such as roads and landing strips, and that they closely coordinated security operations to ensure access to oil exploration areas.

Sources:

Trial Reports - the Lundin Case, Civil Rights Defenders

Lundin War Crimes Trial Podcast

Unpaid Debt, PAX, case summaries and resources

Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, 2003

At the time of the Rwandan genocide, Félicien Kabuga was a prominant businessman. He was subsequently charged with helping to organise and incite attacks against Tutsi as part of the genocide. He went into hiding abroad and was a fugitive for 26 years until he was arrested by French authorities in 2021.

According to the charges, from 1992, Kabuga – through his company ETS – purchased large stocks of machetes and other weapons and uniforms. He also provided transport in his company-owned vehicles. The charges state that he provided this support to the Interahamwe militia in the belief that this material assistance would be used during the massacres.

In addition, it was alleged that Kabuga and others created the National Defence Fund in order to buy weapons, vehicles and uniforms for the Interahamwe and the army and that Kabuga was appointed as President of the National Defence Fund’s Acting Committee. It was alleged that he had signatory power over the fund’s bank accounts and that he informed the Interim Government about the existence of this fund and counseled the government on how to manage and to use it.

In addition, Kabuga was charged in connection with his founding of the radio station RTLM, which he allegedly operated with others in a manner that directly and publicly incited the commission of genocide and persecution of Tutsi through denigrating and threatening broadcasts. These broadcasts expressly identified persons as Tutsi or as “accomplices” or “allies” of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and, in some instances, provided locations and other information that encouraged or facilitated their killing.

The indictment alleges that Kabuga is liable for these crimes based on his participation in a joint criminal enterprise with others, as well as aiding and abetting the criminal conduct of RTLM journalists, Interahamwe miltia, and others whose crimes were assisted or instigated by RTLM broadcasts. Kabuga was further charged with aiding and abetting the Interahamwe militia who killed and harmed Tutsi and others in Kigali-Ville, Gisenyi, and Kibuye prefectures by having provided material, logistical, financial, and moral support to them. As an example, the Indictment alleges that Kabuga supported a core group of Interahamwe in Kimironko, Kigali, known as “Kabuga’s Interahamwe” in numerous ways and that this group participated in attacks, killing and harming Tutsi and others in Kigali-Ville prefecture at roadblocks, places of refuge, and houses.

Kabuga’s trial began at the International Residual Mechanism for the Criminal Tribunals in 2022, where he was charged with genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and persecution on political grounds, extermination, and murder as crimes against humanity, committed in Rwanda in 1994.

In 2023, Kabuga was deemed unfit to stand trial.

Sources:

Case Information Sheet, Felicien Kabuga, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

Felicien Kabug, Ammended Indictment, 1 October 2023