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Opposition Politician Convicted for Harming Rwanda’s Image, Human Rights Watch Kicks

Politician Convicted for Harming Rwanda’s Image, Human Rights Watch Kicks
January 19, 2023

Ntirutwa was convicted based on phone calls he made to his party's leader.

 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned Théophile Ntirutwa's conviction for "spreading false information or harmful propaganda with intent to cause a hostile international opinion against the Rwandan Government" by the High Court's Rwamagana on December 16, 2022.

Human Rights Watch said his conviction as a Rwandan opposition politician for allegedly tarnishing the country's image is an example of the government's longstanding abuse of the justice system to stifle freedom of expression and association.

According to Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, “The conviction of yet another political opponent for allegedly seeking to create hostility against Rwanda demonstrates the high price of getting involved in politics in Rwanda.

“It’s all the more astounding because Rwanda currently chairs the Commonwealth, which holds itself out as a champion of rule of law and good governance.”

Ntirutwa was arrested on May 11, 2020, following a violent incident at his shop in Rwamagana District during which a man was stabbed to death. On May 18, Ntirutwa and three others at his shop at the time of the incident were charged with offences including the formation of a criminal association, murder, theft, and, in the case of Ntirutwa, inciting uprising and “spreading false information or harmful propaganda with intent to cause a hostile international opinion against [the] Rwandan Government.” Ntirutwa and his three co-accused spent over two and a half years in pretrial detention.

Ntirutwa was acquitted of all charges except spreading false information with the intent of creating a hostile opinion of Rwanda abroad on December 16, 2022.

Ntirutwa was convicted based on phone calls he made to his party's leader, Victoire Ingabire, and a journalist in which he claimed the incident was an assassination attempt against him by armed police and military.

The man who died at the shop, Théoneste Bapfakurera, was mistaken for him, according to Ntirutwa, due to their similar first names. Frodouard Hakizimana, Francine Mukantwari, and Jean Bosco Rudasingwa, Ntirutwa's three co accused, were all acquitted.

Even if his accusations were false, his conviction and harsh sentence violated human rights law, according to Human Rights Watch.

Sharing false information would not be a sufficient reason to criminalise freedom of expression. The Rwandan government routinely employs this provision of the penal code to prosecute opposition members, critics, and even refugees who have protested food ration cuts.

Rwanda should repeal this provision immediately and revise the Penal Code in accordance with international and regional human rights standards.

In recent years, several members of the Dalfa-Umurinzi party – formerly known as the United Democratic Forces (Forces Démocratiques Unifiées, FDU-Inkingi) – have reported being detained incommunicado, beaten, and questioned about their party membership.

The trial of 10 people related to “Ingabire Day,” an event scheduled for October 14, 2021, by Dalfa-Umurinzi to discuss, among other things, political repression in Rwanda, is ongoing. Nine defendants are party members, and the tenth is Théoneste Nsengimana, a journalist who was planning to cover the event. Nsengimana and eight of the party members are in Mageragere prison, in Kigali; one is in hiding.

The prosecution contends that a discussion to distribute texts denouncing killings, kidnappings, and beatings was an attempt to overthrow the government, and is seeking life sentences for eight defendants.

This is the second time Ntirutwa has faced charges. He was arrested in September 2017 and forcibly disappeared for 17 days, meaning that his detention and whereabouts were not acknowledged, before being transferred to prison.

He was put on trial alongside ten others, and on January 23, 2020, seven codefendants who were members of Ingabire’s party were convicted of charges including complicity in forming or joining an irregular armed force, and sentenced to between seven and ten years in prison.