Rwanda Information Portal

Ingabire Trial: Kigali High Court Rejects Prosecutor’s Adjournment Request

by Boniface Twagirimana,
Interim Vice President of FDU-Inkingi

The trial of the opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, FDU-INKINGI Chair, started on 05 September with a new prosecutor’s request to postpone the trial to an unknown date due to the fact that the Dutch government has not sent withheld “pieces of evidence”. The defence counsel reminded “that from the start, justifying the preventive detention of the opposition leader, President Paul Kagame, his government and the Prosecutor stated they had overwhelming evidence. It this evidence did not exist, or is not available, the client should be immediately either bailed out, discharged and released “. After deliberations, the High Court presiding Judge Ms. Alice Rulisa rejected the prosecutor’s objection.

The prosecutor’s evasive delaying tactics and the surprising last minute move to postpone sine die the hearing and to keep the opposition leader in maximum security reveal once again the weakness of the legal basis of this politically motivated case. The arrest was done before investigation.

All key opposition leaders are in prison, dead or in exile. Ms. Ingabire is detained in isolation and denied adequate medical care.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Nobody is expecting any fairness in this circus where the RPF regime is both judge and party.

1 comment

1 Chuck Culpepper { 09.07.11 at 10:57 am }

Considering the Rwandan government’s standard tactics of delaying speedy and fair public trials for anyone representing a challenge to the RPF regime, High Court presiding Judge Ms. Alice Rulisa is a brave woman indeed to refuse the prosecutor’s anticipated request to
postpone the trial to an unknown date “due to the fact that the Dutch government has not sent withheld pieces of evidence�.
The truths regarding Rwanda�s repressive and undemocratic government which supports greedy elite powerbrokers in Rwanda and DRCongo needs to be recognized and the consequences of U.S. and other international support of any regime which does not respect basic human rights and freedoms should be objectively reconsidered, as soon as possible.

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