Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire on charges of inciting public disorder and creating a criminal organisation, a state investigative agency said – a move one of her lawyers said was politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA\u2013Umurinzi, returned from exile to contest a presidential election in 2010, but was barred from standing after being accused of genocide denial.<\/p>\n
She was jailed two years later on charges related to conspiring to form an armed group and seeking to minimise the 1994 genocide – charges she denied – and freed in 2018.<\/p>\n
She is now accused of “playing a role in creating a criminal organisation and engaging in acts that incite public disorder,” the Rwanda Investigations Bureau said in a statement late on Thursday. It did not say when she would be charged in court.<\/p>\n
“For us, this is a continuation of a long process of intimidation and political harassment against Victoire and her supporters,” Iain Edwards, one of Ingabire’s international lawyers, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
“It’s to silence her and to warn others not to speak out against the government. People always fear for the lives of political opponents in Rwanda. I certainly fear for her life,” he added.<\/p>\n
Yolande Makolo, the government’s spokesperson, did not immediately respond to a message and phone call requesting comment on the lawyer’s statement.<\/p>\n
Last year President Paul Kagame, in power for a quarter of a century, won\u00a0re-election\u00a0after securing 99.18% of the vote, according to the electoral body.<\/p>\n
Western and regional leaders have praised Kagame for transforming Rwanda from the ruins of the 1994 genocide into a thriving economy. Rights groups have accused him of abuses and of supporting rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, accusations that he denies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire on charges of inciting public disorder and creating a criminal organisation, a state investigative agency said – a move one of her lawyers said was politically motivated. Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA\u2013Umurinzi, returned from exile to contest a presidential election in 2010, but was barred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33],"tags":[4148,140,2200],"class_list":["post-16697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-dalfa-umurinzi","tag-rwanda","tag-victoire-ingabire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}