Rwandan opposition leader Ingabire arrested in connection with alleged plot to overthrow president

Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire has been arrested and charged with inciting public disorder and creating a criminal organisation.

Ingabire appeared before a court in the country's capital Kigali on Thursday for questioning in a case involving nine people accused of training to overthrow President Paul Kagame. Among the suspects is a journalist named Theoneste Nsengimana. The rest are members of the DALFA-Umurinzi group, a party led by Ingabire that is not recognised by authorities.

Prosecutors say Ingabire provided funding and other support to the accused.

Ingabire admitted to knowing some of the defendants but denied any connection with the alleged plot.

In a statement, the Rwandan Investigations Bureau said she is currently being held in Kigali. Her team of international lawyers in a statement called her arrest “baseless and politically motivated.”

Return from exile

Ingabire spent 16 years in exile in the Netherlands and returned to Rwanda in 2010 to launch an opposition political movement but was imprisoned before she could contest the presidential election.

She was later found guilty of conspiracy to undermine the government and denying Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, charges she denied.

Sentenced to 15 years, she was freed in 2018 after obtaining a presidential pardon.

But Kagame has since threatened Ingabire with a possible return to jail. In 2020 the president said that Ingabire should not be shocked if she is locked up again.

Her lawyers say she has committed no crimes.

“This re-arrest is simply the latest step in an ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation which the Rwandan government has been carrying out” against Ingabire, the statement from her lawyers said.

Three decades after a genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwanda’s president has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery.

But Kagame has faced criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition. He denies the accusations.