A Rwandan court on Thursday refused for the fourth time to grant bail to opposition leader Victoire Ingabire who has been in detention since her arrest in October over terrorism charges. The High Court rejected her bail application and she will remain in custody until her next bail appeal or trial, whose date has not been fixed.

Ingabire is the leader of the unregistered Unified Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi) party.

“We are not happy about the decision of the judge because Victoire Ingabire is innocent. We don’t see why she must stay in jail for many days as we have seen,” said Sylvain Sibomana, the FDU secretary general.

Boniface Twagirimana, Interim Vice President of FDU-Inkingi, noted however that “The judge did not have much choice as President Paul KAGAME informed a press conference �on 18 January 2011, two days before the verdict, that Ms. Victoire INGABIRE will face the laws up to the exhaustion of the process.” And he added a further comment:
“Who is the judge strong enough to contradict him in Rwanda? Only God.”

Ingabire arrived in Rwanda early last year after 17 years in exile in the Netherlands. She has been an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame and his regime.