Rwandan held in Germany over 1994 assassination

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- A top aide to the Rwandan president is in German custody for her alleged role in a 1994 assassination that sparked the Rwandan genocide, the German Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Rose Kabuye was arrested Saturday at the Frankfurt airport while on a private visit, the ministry said. She is awaiting extradition to France, it said.

Rwanda's government issued a statement saying Kabuye is innocent of the charges, and that she is ready to face trial in France.

"The government of Rwanda believes that this is a political game designed to blur the truth and weaken the government," the statement said.

She is one of nine aides to Rwandan President Paul Kagame that Europe is seeking to arrest on charges of plotting the assassination of the then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994.

A French judge ruled in 2006 that legal proceedings could proceed against Kagame and his nine aides, which prompted Rwanda to break its diplomatic ties with France.

Habyarimana and Burundi's former leader Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when their plane was shot down in April 1994, a move that fueled the genocide in Rwanda by Hutu extremists against mostly Tutsis. About 800,000 people were killed.