A German-Rwandan man has been detained on charges of committing genocide and 25 murders in Kayove in north-western Rwanda in 1994, German federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
The man, who has not been named under privacy laws, is believed to have ordered the murders of 25 members of the Tutsi tribe, the Karlsruhe-based prosecutors said.
The arrest was made on Wednesday in Main-Kinzig-Kreis to the east of Frankfurt in the state of Hesse, and the man was to appear before the federal court in Karlsruhe during the course of Wednesday.
He is reported to have abused his position as assistant to the mayor of Kayove before the murders to incite the killing of Tutsi in his municipality and to have had death lists drawn up, they said.
"In one case, the accused was personally involved in the murder of a man, whose chest he cut with a knife," the prosecutors' statement said.
In April 1994, Hutu militias began the murder of the Tutsi ethnic minority following a months-long government-incited hate campaign.
At least 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were murdered within 100 days, hacked to death or burnt alive.
In December 2015, a Frankfurt court sentenced a man to life in prison for his role in the genocide. He had been convicted of ordering and commanding the Kiziguro church massacre in which at least 400 Tutsi were killed in April 1994.
