Rwanda : Ingabire detailed errors of the High Court in sentencing her to eight years in prison.
Kigali, 29 July 2013
Press release
On Monday, July 29, 2013, at the headquarters of the Supreme Court in Kigali, the floor was given to the President of the FDU-Inkingi, Ms. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza political prisoner, gave reasons for her appeal and made comments on the Prosecution's appeal.
Madame Victoire Ingabire has asked the court to take into account how the High Court ignored the agreements between the DRC and Rwandan government regarding former FDLR rebels who lay down their arms. These agreements stipulated that they would not be prosecuted for acts committed outside the territory of Rwanda, except for crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Madame Victoire Ingabire told the court that the court has knowingly ignored these agreements for the sole purpose of finding a ground for her conviction.
Ingabire also recalled how the prosecution ignored agreements with the Dutch State on the facts that have occurred outside of Rwanda. The two countries agreed that the documents submitted to the Rwandan justice by the Dutch justice in rogatory a commission, could be used only for the offense of terrorism. However, the High Court did not comply with these agreements and instead the Prosecution used the documents to frame a new charge which was not included in the charges which not figure in her indictment or was she questioned about by the Criminal Investigation Department or submitted in Court as provided by Article 64 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Ingabire also highlighted the non-retroactivity of laws and that this legal provision has had been ignored. She pointed out that in its judgment, it appears that the court, due to lack of legal basis and sufficient evidence in Rwandan law to back its decision, overstretched the legal boundaries just to keep her in prison to meet the wishes of the Kigali regime.
She is also pointed out how the prosecution and the court ignored the change in the testimonies of the her co-accused who denied having received money from her money and confirmed that the so-called rebel force, CDF is not known to them and that it never r existed. However, the prosecution had alleged that she had bought weapons for the force; a force which in reality ever existed!
She finally commented on the emails that the prosecution claims were exchanged between her and her co-accused. She showed the court two emails that the prosecution presented as photocopies. A closer look revealed s that the dates on the emails were a mixture of English and French, while the other was written in French only. She wondered how these two messages could come from the same mailbox as claimed by the prosecution!
After testimony on Tuesday, her legal team would make their submissions. As Ms. Ingabire had asked the court informed the parties that the trial would continue on Wednesday, but at 14:00.
FDU-INKINGI
Boniface Twagirimana
Acting Vice-President
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