After Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza told the court that she wants to be exonerated of the guilt of being imprisoned, the prosecution said that she does not deserve it because she has not behaved well since she was released.
Ingabire appeared before the Court wearing a black dress and a predominantly khaki coat.
The President of the High Court came to greet the audience and at the end of the trial, he gave Ingabire a speech to explain why he felt he should be acquitted.
She was imprisoned after being sentenced by the High Court of Kigali in a case decided on October 30, 2012.
It should be noted that at that time she was convicted of treason and the crime of belittling the Genocide against the Tutsis.
However, in 2018 she was released on the mercy of President Kagame
In her speech, Ingabire told the court: “I have the opportunity to thank President Kagame for the kindness he has done to me and I will never forget it before God.”
Ingabire said that when she was granted amnesty, she was advised that she should take care not to waste the opportunity of amnesty granted to her by the President of the Republic.
Her concerns include non-recidivism, combating the stigma of Genocide and more.
She says that the basis for her request for discharge is that the statutory five-year period has expired, and that he has been advised by the RCS management to follow it.
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She told the court: “As I understood all these actions I tried to do it. The fact that it has been five years since I was released, the fact that I have shown good behavior is the reason why I am asking for the removal of disability.”
Legal advocate, Mr. Gatera Gashabana, said that the provisions of the law should be looked at that show what must be complete in order for a person to apply for the removal of defects.
Some of the contents of the President’s decree granting her amnesty include the fact that she was required to seek permission from the Minister of Justice when she was going to go abroad, and she complied even though she was not returned.
Mrs. Gashabana stated that his client agreed to respect her orders even though she had her family outside the country and her husband was sick but did not go to see her.
She had to comply with the terms of the President’s pardon.
Gashabana reminded the court that a person who was sentenced to be pardoned or released would not have been executed.
The prosecution brought the reason why he was not granted what he requested…
When the prosecution was given time to explain why it felt it was not granted immunity, it said that whoever requested it was not immediately granted it.
Rather, it requires that the applicant has been of good character, and the court may or may not approve the applicant.
The reasons they give for the request to remove all defects have not been granted, especially in the case of Ingabire Victore Umuhoza, that he has not followed what he was ordered to do by God.
It says that the second article of the amnesty stipulates that the amnesty must report to the local prosecutor’s office within 15 days and notify the village and cell he lives in, attend the prosecutor’s office once a month, and request the Minister He has the right to a license whenever he wants to go abroad.
It showed that he had not complied with what he had been ordered to do, giving an example of going to the local prosecutor’s office once a month.
It said that in the year 2020 from September to December, 2021; from May to August in the year 2022 in November he did not attend and last year in the month of March and December he also did not attend.
The prosecution claims that the reason for the absence was the COVID-19 situation, although it was not.
It said that there were months when people did not attend the courts but in those months it was revealed that he did not attend the prosecution and others in the same category as him signed and therefore should not be attributed to the epidemic.
As for the claim that there was a time when he went to the prosecutor’s office and forgot to sign, that was also not true.
Even though Ingabire Victoire had indicated that she forgot to go there the following month and signed twice, the prosecution shows that this is not the case and should not be changed on the provisions of the decree of the President of the Republic.
The prosecutor also said that since December 2019, until today[..] the Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into Ingabire’s conduct on three cases where he is suspected of various crimes.
The prosecution says that having good behavior does not mean greeting people, but obeying the law.
It revealed that after Ingabire was released, he continued to act as the leader of the FDU Inkingi party and the DALFA-Umurzi party, both of which are illegal parties in the country.
Another thing is that through different social media and on different occasions he signed announcements containing messages for his members and did so as the President of the parties.
The prosecution says that Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has the right to establish a party, but that there is a process that the law provides for a person to go through to establish it and she did not follow it.
His accuser pointed out that on June 14, 2022, Ingabire collaborated with Ntaganda Bernard to issue a press release calling himself the President of DALFA-Umurinz.
He pointed out that in the aforementioned law, there is a provision that states that a person sentenced by the courts to six months in prison cannot lead the party while he is sentenced to 15 years, so being the President of DALFA-Umurinzi is an act against the law and going against it is a sign of ‘bad behavior.
Article 39 of the law regulating political parties deals with the prohibitions on politicians and political parties, so breaking the law is a violation of the law.
In explaining why Ingabire should not be acquitted, the prosecution also said that the crimes he was convicted of are so serious that he should not be acquitted.
The crime of conspiracy aimed at harming the existing government through terror and war, the crime of belittling the Genocide against the Tutsis, the crime of deliberately spreading rumors aimed at disobeying the public and harming the existing government was confirmed.
These crimes, on the part of the police, are so serious that the person convicted by the court should not be exempted.
It gave an example of what happened to Mushayidi Déogratias, saying that the Supreme Court refused to reduce his punishment due to the seriousness of the crimes he was accused of, so the court can use that example or others, including the ones that will be received in France, rejecting Ingabire’s request.
Commenting on this, Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza said that Rwandans are breaking the myth that ‘sifting will not remove the herd.’
He said that the places where he did not go to sign were due to the severity of COVID-19, but the places where he did not sign, he tried to do his best to replace the teacher.
He said, “Sifting does not eliminate the herd, maybe if you filter it you can see it differently.”
He said that good behavior in the law is not defined so what he did is not considered good behavior.
He said that being the leader of the party he did it according to the law and he had not yet reached the level of being governed by the law regulating political organizations because he was still looking for 200 activists who are covered by the law.
The fact that he named the president was appropriate because he was the one who founded it, but they had not been involved in electing leaders, especially since the 200 people required by the law had not been filled.
Regarding the files in the RIB, Ingabire said that it is about the fact that he met people when he was looking for members of his party even though this level showed that he was using the council.
After the attacks in Kinigi in 2019, RIB invited Ingabire Victoire to ask him about it, when he arrived he explained that he did not know anything.
In October 2021, some people were arrested who were allegedly going to hold a protest but Ingabire explained to RIB that he had not planned any protest.
He told the court that he should not be exonerated because the things he was questioned about in the past years were never brought to the prosecution or tried in court.
“Anyone convicted of a crime can be exonerated, so I understand that what the prosecution says will not be taken into account because what is being considered is good behavior and I have shown it,” he said.
He added: “The herds that will find me small will see that I am like a man who can be killed and make mistakes, that I have not betrayed my country.”
Mr. Gatera Gashabana said that his lawyer complied with the requirements of the law.
He also said that the prosecution should not have said that the fact that a person was followed by the RIB constitutes misconduct!
Those meetings include meeting the leaders of the place where he lives, living well with others, fighting the ideology of Genocide against the Tutsis, etc.
