Friday 14th of May, 2010
KIGALI - Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, has warned Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire of FDU-Inkingi party, against giving interviews to newspapers, saying the bail terms bar her from doing that.
“She is disregarding the bail conditions and may cause the Prosecution to initiate a process of bail cancellation,” Ngoga told The New Times in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Ingabire is charged with association with a terrorist group, propagating the Genocide Ideology, Revisionism and Ethnic Division.
Ignatius Ssuuna talked at length to the Prosecutor General.
Below are excerpts.
Q: From the day she was granted bail, Ingabire has continued to conduct interviews and write several articles about her arrest. What is your take on this?
A: What the Prosecution has been observing regarding the conduct of Ingabire, who is on bail following charges of terrorism and plotting to cause state insecurity, are pointing at the breach and abuse of bail conditions. This may cause the Prosecution to initiate the process of bail cancellation.
Q: What is exactly the problem?
A: The Prosecution is more specifically concerned with continued posting declarations and newspaper interviews she has been doing. The case against her is not one of robbery in which restraining physical movement would be enough to contain further damage. It is a case of destructive and divisive ideology whose damage does not require physical proximity of the offender.
Q: When will her substantive trial begin?
A: We are keen to start the trial very soon, which will be against her person and her accomplices as well as taking steps to ensure her organization which harbours divisive ideology does not find space in the politics of our country.
We are not dealing with a unique case in a unique situation, we are dealing with a situation other countries have faced before and resolved in the same manner.
Q: Like which country?
A: The Spanish government did this with respect to Batasuna Party. Decision to contain and ban political activities of these political parties have passed the tests of hierarchy of national and continental courts in Europe.
Closeness to ETA in Spain is as dangerous to closeness to FDLR. ETA is listed as a terrorist group by Spain, the European Union and the United States.
Our critics, mostly from the West, must have regard to their own jurisprudence if they do not trust our own. We are engaged in a legal process fully complying and covered by international conventions and judicial jurisprudence.
We have reached out to our foreign counterparts to avail judicial cooperation as we seek to obtain records we consider vital in this case.
In doing so, we rely on international agreements on judicial cooperation and which here also been relied upon by the same countries to seek our cooperation. It’s time for them to reciprocate by extending judicial cooperation we are seeking.
It’s not necessarily an issue of whether we can do without these records; it is an issue of participation by all parties as we were made to understand when these agreements were offered.
The above article sharply contravenes with the COURT DECISION RDP0226/10/GJIGSBO of 04/22/2010 with regard to Mrs. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza’s trial and subsequent release on bail.
ReplyDeletePlease find hereafter an excerpt from the court ruling. FYI, no where it is mentioned that Mrs. Ingabire should not post declarations or conduct interviews with newspapers.
"IV. THE COURT DECISION
20. The court has decided that the reasons the prosecution considers to be serious which incriminate Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire, crimes of collaborating with terrorist organizations, of downplaying genocide and that of fuelling divisions are indeed well founded.
21. The court has decided that Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire be prosecuted without being detained. However, the defendant will be ordered to relinquish her passport to the prosecutor in charge of her case. She will not travel beyond the boundaries of the city of Kigali without this prosecutor’s permission. She also will have to report to the prosecutor’s office every Monday of the first week and the Monday of the third week of each month and any other time she would be asked to do so.
22. The court has ordered that Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire be released.
23. The court has ordered that Ingabire Umuhoza Victoire hand over her papers (passport) to the prosecutor in charge of her case. It has ordered her to not step out of the boundaries of Kigali without a permission issued by the prosecutor in charge of putting together her case. She was also ordered to report to him every Monday of the first week and the Monday of the third week of each month and any other time she would be asked to do so.
24. The court is reminding that the defendant has five days to appeal this decision
Thus the court has decided and this decision was read in public today 04/22/2010 by the Higher Court of Gasabo, made of the judge that tried this case and his secretary."