Rwanda arrests treason suspects

  1. Posted on Tuesday 12 August 2008 - 14:32
    deodatus
    deofuga@yahoo.com
    Deodatus Mfugale, AfricaNews Reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    A former Judge of Gisenyi in Rwanda's Western Province, Apolinaire Mizerero, is among ten people who were arrested last week by the police in Byumba, Gicumbi district in Rwanda on charges of treason, genocide denial and use of illegal national flags in Rwanda.
    rwanda_Dave_Proffer
    Other suspects include Gratien Mupenzi, the district President of Private Sector Federation (PSF)and Antoine Dukuzimana, a Catholic Brother working at a bookshop in Byumba town.

    The list also includes also includes the headmaster of APAPEB Secondary School, Emmanuel Karekezi, a taxi driver Jean Pierre Munyensanga, the officer in-charge of planning at Gicumbi district Emmanuel Akimanaizanye, Masista Murwanashyaka who owns La Fontaine Bar in Byumba, and a technician in a construction company, Epaphrose Mukiza .

    According to the police the suspects were arrested for keeping the old national flags, while Apolinaire Mizerero was arrested for having seditious material sealed in a hard envelope at the counter of his bar. The envelope with all its contents was confiscated upon raiding the bar known as Embassy which Mizerero operates. Mizerero's wife, Mary Theresa Dusabe, and their son Olivier Rukundo were also arrested for interrogation.

    Among the seditious documents include a seven-page hand-written unsigned letter calling upon Rwandan FDLR rebels to disrupt the September parliamentary polls, to form income generating societies referred to as "Ibibina" in order to strengthen their supporters' financial power and to sensitize secondary and university students in the country to continue with the genocide ideology campaign.

    The letter also calls upon FDLR supporters in the country to hold meetings to propagate the genocide ideology in the late hours of the night, in shops and bars, where they are not easily suspected.

    The suspects were taken to Gicumbi District Prosecution Department on Wednesday where an official said that they will be charged with treason under Article 164 of the Rwandan Penal code and Article 4 of the Organic Law that charges crimes of genocide and other acts against humanity committed in Rwanda. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Seven of the suspects were granted bail while the other three Mizerero, his wife Dusabe and their son Rukundo, were detained.

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