In the court of the East African Community, there is a group of more than 150 Rwandans who recently complained to the Government of Rwanda that the National Prosecutor’s Office, RIB, detained them illegally.
They say they were arrested in January, 2023 on charges of economic fraud and they actually passed.
They say that the charges against them were unfair because what they did was to have I&M Bank cards that allowed them to deposit and withdraw money from different countries without being charged.
RIB is said to have arrested the suspects for economic crimes, which are worth $8,186,597.
In the complaint brought to the court mentioned above, the clients and I&M Bank say that Rwanda deliberately killed the law when the RIB imprisoned those who were entitled to their rights by the law, and were imprisoned for a long time without trial.
They said that they want the EAC Court to declare that the RIB imprisoned them unjustly, in violation of certain provisions of the Constitution of Rwanda, its laws and articles 6 (d) and 7 (2) of the Convention establishes the East African Community, EAC.
In their complaint, according to The East African, it is included that what RIB has done as part of the Government of Rwanda is contrary to the agreement that establishes human rights that is available in the EAC and the United African Union.
One of them, named Ssemakula Ali Abaas, explained to the court the allegations they made against RIB.
This time, this man confronted Léatitia Nyinawumuntu, who is one of the 157 people who say they were detained unjustly by the RIB and were not brought to justice within the legal time frame.
All those people who are more than 150, say that what they were followed by RIB in the past was unfair because they called I&M Bank Rwanda Mastercard cards that have the ability to store and transfer money of up to 17 different types.
They say that the advantage of the card (which is also why it burns) is that it has the ability to withdraw money of a certain type from its account by exchanging it for another type.
An example we can give is how to withdraw Rwandan francs (Frw) by converting them into US dollars ($) without having to go to a forex bureau.
This is also done at a reasonable exchange rate.
They say that it helped them to take the currency used in the United Arab States, called Dirhams, and convert them into Euros, with a 10% discount.
Abaas says that this method is important and popularized by the name of Arbitrage in the field of Bank users.
These people say that in January, 2023, when RIB shut them down, they were wronged because what they did was transparent.
Abaas told The East African that he was detained for two months and the police confiscated his documents and $6,800.
Also, it caused him to lose his job that paid him $1,500 and his wife and children were not informed of his imprisonment.
The story of The East African states that the representative of the State of Rwanda is the one who defended in this case, which is said to be several million dollars.
The unnamed representative of the Rwandan government (now Dr. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja who is the Minister of Justice) denied what Rwanda is being accused of, saying that those arrested at that time were people who were being investigated by RIB in accordance with the law in the pursuit of economic crimes.
He told the court that these people were being investigated for crimes against the economy and crimes using technology.
The representative of the State of Rwanda says that these people were later released provisionally but then fled Rwanda.
Another thing is that the messenger says that the court to which this lawsuit was filed has no jurisdiction to hear such a case and that the lawsuit is out of date.
The court papers say that the Government of Rwanda wants this complaint to be invalidated because it was filed after 11 months and the law says that such a complaint filed after two months is out of date.
Even this is supported by the fact that article 3092 of the agreement establishing the EAC states that the claim had to be filed within two months.
Kubera iyo mpamvu rero, u Rwanda ruvuga ko icyo kirego kigomba guteshwa agaciro.
