The Nyarugenge court of first instance is slated to try in absentia Nelson Gatsimbazi the Editor-in-chief of Umusingi vernacular tabloid.
In the case Gatsimbazi is allegedly accused of propagation of Discrimination and divisionism punishable by law and subject to the provisions of articles 33, 34 of the constitution of the Republic of Rwanda.
“They fixed a date for my trial saying I was nowhere to be seen in the country. All they wanted was to arrest me and detain me,” Gatsimbazi told Igihe.com late Monday.
However, Gatsimbazi further explained that his lawyer earlier appeared in court to represent him to prove to them that they (prosecution) actually planned to arrest and detain his client. They wanted to try me in absentia, yet I was around and they hadn’t informed me that I had a case to answer.
If found guilty, Gatsimbazi is likely to serve a sentence of between one and five years in jail, and pay cash of between Frw500,000 and Frw2million or one of the two sentences.
Meanwhile a local online publication reported that Gatsimbazi is allegedly holedup in Sweden for an unknown duration.However, Gatsimbazi neither confirms nor denys about his present location. On insistance, Gatsimbazi told Igihe that he is in the United Kingdom where he is studying Journalism.
Recently he alleged that his tabloid’s editorial Line had been hijacked and switched to a different editorial line by Stanley Gatera his elder brother currently managing the tabloid.
Gatera told local press that he will not suspend operations of the tabloid despite requests by Gatsimbazi to Media High Council (MHC) to suspend the tabloid operations until further notice.
“We had agreement before Gatsimbazi left the country. The deal was that I would fund the operation of the tabloid. So if he wants to terminate the agreement, let him come and we sit again and see the way forward” Gatera earlier told a local online publication.”
Gatsimbazi contacted the MHC through an email bearing no signature but later accompanied the email with a phone call asking the MHC authorities to suspend the tabloid temporarily.
Leave a Reply