You can also donate to Foundation for Democracy In Rwanda. The organizations helps assist offset the cost of legal trial for Victoire Ingabire and other political prisoners in Rwanda.
Below is an update of Ms. Ingabire's trial by Dutch journalist Anneke Verbraeken. Ms. Verbraeken is a personal friend of Ms. Ingabire and covered her during last year's presidential election. She has since been banned from ever visiting Rwanda again. Merry Christmas to all of you!
Monday december 19, 2011
On December 16th the High Court declined the new bail motion.
So for the second time, opposition leader Victoire Ingabire will spend her
Christmas in jail. Bail was requested based on the lack of serious evidence and
because of inconsistencies and contradictions in the evidence.
However, the judge told
Ingabire that she was prosecuted for grave crimes and that the High Court has
not yet received the whole evidence. The judge is probably referring to the
documents sent from the Netherlands. They have to be translated. Although,
translated? Most of the pages are lists of telephone calls made by Ingabire and
others during a number of years. Even without a translation they are easily
understood.
The trial of Ingabire worries
president Paul Kagame. The trial worries him so much, he speaks about it in
public, something which is absolutely not done. Political leaders don’t talk
about guilty or not during someones trial. It’s part of the ‘trias politica’
principle: the separation of powers. For your information, president Kagame:
with the Trias Politica the state is divided in three separate branches
(executive, legislature judiciary), each with it’s independent powers and
responsibilities. It means the executive branch (you for instance) doesn’t
meddle with the judiciary, the trial of Ingabire in this case.
The trial of Ingabire also
worries the Dutch government. But in what way it’s hard to tell. Holland was
very quick in saying ‘yes’ to the demands of Rwanda. ‘You want information, you
want files, you want us to do house searches for you? But off course.’ And off
they went to get everything done for Rwanda, after a positive advice of the
Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. One day before her bail was denied, the
Dutch ambassador Frans Makken visited Ingabire in jail.
The trial will continue on januari 16th 2012.
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