* Judges order release for lack of evidence; prosecution appeals
* Prosecutors link Mbarushimana to rebels accused of genocide role
AMSTERDAM, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A Rwandan rebel leader sent to the International Criminal Court to face charges including murder, rape and torture in the Democratic Republic of Congo must be freed because of lack of evidence, judges ruled on Friday.
Callixte Mbarushimana, described as a senior leader in the FDLR, a rebel group widely accused of deep involvement in the Rwandan genocide, was handed over to the war crimes court in January after a two-year investigation.
But judges at the Hague court's pre-trial chamber on Friday said there was insufficient evidence to believe that he could be criminally responsible for the eight counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity against him.
A spokeswoman for the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he would appeal. Mbarushimana, who denies the allegations, remained in detention on Friday evening.
The leaders of the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) fled to Congo after the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were killed. The group played a major role in Congo's 1998-2003 conflict, in which 5 million people died, and has continued mass rapes, torture and killing.
Mbarushimana was detained in Paris last year, after investigations by France, Germany, Congo, Rwanda and the ICC, over allegations that the FDLR had been involved in hundreds of rapes in Congo's North Kivu province.
Moreno-Ocampo said previously that Mbarushimana had lived in Paris and from afar contributed to the group's "criminal plan". (Reporting By Sara Webb; Editing by Ben Harding)
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