Four exiled former allies of Rwandan President Paul Kagame who were sentenced to long jail terms in absentia last week for alleged links with a rebel group could face fresh charges.
Captain Fidel Musingi, the head of Rwandan military prosecutions, told Bloomberg news wire on Friday that the prosecution is preparing “another case of terrorism against the four officers.”
Former army chief Faustin kayumba Nyamwasa and a former head of military intelligence Patrick Karegeya were sentenced this month to 20 years in jail for together with two other former senior state officials on charges of “threatening state security”.
No one know what evidence is likely to be used for the new terrorism charges the prosecutor is preparing. However, the authorities have been keen to link Nyamwasa to a series of deadly grenade attacks that rocked the capital Kigali shortly before the presidential election in August last year.
"Terrorist contacts"
Days before Nyamwasa’s sentence was announced, a Congo-based rebel who had defected to Rwanda “confessed” that the runaway general was holding talks with a terrorist group.
The defector, a “Colonel” Amri Bizimana, told reporters that FDRL rebels had held several meetings with Nyamwasa and Patrick Karegeya, another erstwhile ally of President Paul Kagame who is now living in exile in South Africa with Nyamwasa.
While the authenticity of this information is yet to be established, the two were fingered for allegedly having close contacts with the FDRL which is based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
FDRL is a French acronym that stands for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu rebel group comprising remnants of the ‘interahamwe’ militia who carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
In Rwanda, Nyamwasa was seen by many as one of the ‘inkotanyi’, the heroes of the Rwanda Patriotic Army commanded by Kagame which put down the genocide.
Ever since an apparent assassination attempt against him in an affluent Johannesburg suburb last year, Nyamwasa has become one of President Kagame’s bitterest critics, accusing him of wielding dictatorial control over the judiciary and legislature.
"Insulting the President"
FDRL is largely known for its terror activities, including rapes and looting, in its operational areas in the eastern DRC Kivu provinces.
Rwandan authorities have also linked the FDLR with a prominent Rwandan opposition figure, Ms Victoire Ingabire.
Last week, Nyamwasa, Karegeya and two other prominent exiles were back in the news, slapped with lengthy jail sentences for threatening state security, undermining public order, promoting ethnic divisions and insulting the president.
The other two include a former Director of cabinet Theogene Rudasingwa and a former prosecutor-general Gerald Gahima.
The four were all sentenced to 20 years in jail by a Rwandan military court sitting in a Kigali suburb called Kanombe. However presiding judge Brigadier General Peter Bagabo added an extra four years to Nyamwasa’s and Rudasingwa’s sentences for “deserting” the army.
The four exiles have dismissed the sentences as “completely, politically motivated.”
"We reiterate once again that we are innocent of the crimes that we have been accused of," they said in a joint statement received by AFP in Nairobi. "We are not criminals; we are patriots who advocate for an end to dictatorship and advancement of freedom."
The military prosecutor had called for a 30-year sentence for each and an extra five for Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa. The trial also resulted into all four being stripped off their civil rights, with Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa losing their army ranks as well.
"Criminal gang"
The prosecution claimed that Rudasingwa could have been working with the inspirational figure of the "Hotel Rwanda" Hollywood movie, Mr Paul Rusesabagina, and FDLR officials in North America.
Rusesabagina’s reported acts of assistance to embattled Tutsis at the height of the genocide have since been disputed by Rwandan authorities.
Rwanda’s prosecutor-general Martin Ngoga claimed last year that his office was preparing charges against Rusesabagina, purportedly for offering financial support to the FDLR rebels.
Nyamwasa’s and his colleagues’ woes go back to August last year when they published on the Internet a document titled ‘The Rwanda Brief’ which carried statements the Rwandan government considered criminal.
According to military prosecutors, the authors exposed Rwanda to “sectarianism” and the hostility of a “foreign power.”
They were also accused of establishing a “criminal gang.”
Late last year, Nyamwasa and Karegeya announced the creation of a new political body called the Rwanda National Congress. The party also counts Rudasingwa and several former high-level allies of Kagame now in exile.
The group says it wants to eradicate human rights violations in Rwanda and create a political environment that will nurture democratic governance.
By: Kezio Musoke David (Africa Review)
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