Presidential hopeful arrested in Rwanda

  1. Posted on Thursday 22 April 2010 - 10:15
    Sanday
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    Rwandan opposition leader and presidential hopeful, Victoire Ingabire, has been arrested. An anonymous judicial official said, "She was arrested in Kigali. She is accused of collaborating with a terrorist organisation, dividing the population, denying and downplaying the genocide" in that country.
    RWANDA-simultaneous grenade attacks target Kigali district
    Ingabire, who is to challenge President Paul Kagame in an August election, is the head of the United Democratic Forces (FDU), a party formed in exile but not yet registered.

    Last month she was prevented from leaving the country because she was under police investigation.

    "We are suspecting her of having committed serious crimes. We have sufficient evidence to begin prosecution," police spokesperson, Eric Kayiranga said.

    She is also accused of links with the Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and who Kigali has repeatedly accused of taking part in the genocide that claimed some 800,000 lives.

    The FDU leader was to be handed over to the prosecutor later Wednesday to press the charges.

    Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to the country on January 16 and called for the trial of those responsible for the death of Hutus in the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, were killed.

    Those remarks, according to the government, amounted to denying the 1994 massacre and Ingabire has since been repeatedly questioned by the police.

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