On December 16, 2012 the Paris Appeals Court issued a ruling against the Rwandan Government in its case against former Rwandan Public Works Minister Rafiki Hyancinthe Muhindo Nsengiyumva. The case had been going on since Mr Rafiki Nsengiyumva was detained in France following an INTERPOL notice initiated upon the request of the current Rwandan government. He had initially has been cleared on September 28, 2011, by French courts of the accusations leveled against him after the Rwandan government failed to bring in allocated period the requested formal accusations. Rwandan government then appeared. He was accused of participating in or leading 1994 Rwandan massacres.
On November 28, 2012, the Counsel for the prosecution at the Paris Appeals Court issued an unfavorable opinion on the Rwandan government’s extradition request. Then the Court said it would hand down a decision on the Rwandan request against Hyacinthe Rafiki Nsengiyumva on December 19, 2012.
In issuing the unfavorable opinion on November 28, 2012, Jean-Charles Lecompte, the counsel for the prosecution at the Paris court had expressed his surprise on the fact that the extradition request had been signed by the same prosecutor who signed the indictment and the arrest warrant. All were signed by the Rwandan prosecutor Martin Ngoga. He added that Rwandan prosecution appears to be a mix of politics, judicial, prosecution, and propaganda against recognized legal practices. He said: ”in all the law faculties, we teach that an extradition request must be made by a government.”
The Rwandan government, whose leader Geneal Paul Kagame is accused of assassinating his predecessor General Juvenal Habyarimana, has been lobbying the French goverment and judicial system to have Hyancithe Rafiki judged in France or extradited to and prosecuted in Rwanda. The lobbying and intense media and diplomatic campaign financed by the Rwandan government started when Rafiki Hyacinthe participated as a National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader in Rome and Kisangani peace efforts aimed at getting Rwandan rebels based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to peacefully repatriate to Rwanda.
NDC is a coalition between two armed opposition parties, the Rally for Unity and Democracy (RUD-Urunana) and Rally for Rwandan People (RPR-Inkeragutabara). The Rwandan government intelligence services hired a consultant, Rakiya Omaar to build a case against Rafiki Hyancinthe. Attempts to kidnap Rafiki Hyacinthe while on a MONUC airplane in the DRC and bring him to Rwanda were thwarted by Congolese security services. Following the failed kidnap attempt, the Rwandan government lobbied INTERPOL and got Rafiki Hyacinte on the wanted list. He was arrested in France in August 2011.
The French court decision appears to be one in series of blows to the Rwandan government by the French judicial system. On December 6, 2012, the French courts also ordered the Mayor of Essone, in Paris suburbs, to issue a residence permit to the widow of the late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. The french courts had dismissed the case of the Rwandan Government agains the widow of the late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in September 2011 .
Following today’s ruling the long running case against Rafiki Hyacinthe appears to have reached its end.
©2012 AfroAmerica Network.
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