FORMER Rwanda Government prosecutor general Dr. Gerald Gahima has dismissed his trial and conviction by the country’s military court as a travesty of justice and an abuse of human rights.
Gahima and three other top Rwandese Patriotic Front officials were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Gahima, currently exiled in Washington DC, USA, said it was a case of persecution by President Paul Kagame.
On Friday, the Rwandan military court convicted Gahima, together with former army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, former director of cabinet Theogene Rudasingwa and Patrick Karegeya, the former director of military intelligence, to 20 years in prison for threatening state security.
The presiding judge, Brig. Gen. Peter Bagabo, slapped Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa with an extra four years for deserting the army.
The four were jointly charged with threatening state security, undermining public order, promoting ethnic divisions and insulting the president.
Gahima, in a statement also written on behalf of his colleagues, yesterday accused Kagame of wielding absolute control over the judiciary and legislature. He described the trial as illegal and political.
“The proceedings against us violate international standards of fair trial as established by human rights instruments to which Rwanda is a party.
“As we have previously indicated in statements relating to the case, the court that heard this case does not meet international requirements for a competent, independent and impartial tribunal,” Gahima said.
He said the impartiality was clearly demonstrated by the recent decision to remove and suspend from duty Brig. Steven Karyango and Lt Col. Marc Sebaganji, the military court judges who acquitted Col. Diogene Mudenge, and by the illegal incarceration of Lt Gen. Charles Muhire and Lt Col. Rugigana Ngabo.
“Rwanda’s military justice is used by President Kagame to persecute civilians and military personnel he considers to be threats,” he added.
Gahima said the trial was conducted in absentia of the convicts and the verdict could not be appealed.
He challenged the Rwandan government to release the dossier of the case to the public so that it can make its own judgment.
Gahima appealed to the international community to prevail upon Kagame to release all political prisoners, including journalists, who are in detention in Rwanda.
Source: NewVision |
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