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  • Prosecution Requests Life Sentence for Ingabire

    Prosecution has today requested for a life sentence and a fine of Frw 1,400,000 for Victoire Ingabire, on charges including complicity in a terrorist group and denying the 1994 Genocide against ethnic Tutsi.

    “We request a life sentence for Victoire Ingabire,” Deputy Prosecutor General Alphonse Hitiyaremye said at the conclusion of Ingabire’s trial that has been ongoing for over seven months.

    However, Inagbire’s four co-accused including; Maj. Uwumuremyi Vital, Lt. Col. Nditurende Tharcisse, Lt. Col. Habiyaremye Noel and Capt. Karuta JMV appeared in court today. Prosecution requested a sentence of ten years in jail for Ingabire’s Four co-accused.

    Ingabire last week said she would boycott her trial after the court cut short a defence witness who accused government of rigging evidence against her.

    Judges will give a verdict on June 29. Ingabire,was not in court- she is charged with “giving financial support to a terrorist group, planning to cause state insecurity and divisionism.” She denies the charges.

    Ingabire’s British lawyer Iain Edwards said he and his Rwandan colleague “are still very much in contact with her.”

    “We await with interest the verdict in this case and look forward to starting the inevitable appeal process,” Edwards said.

    “That process will not end within the borders of the Republic of Rwanda. Victoire is ready for that process and looks to the future with courage, patience and a strong conviction that the truth will eventually be known.”

    Prosecution says it has evidence of Ingabire’s alleged “terrorist” activities, including proof of financial transfers to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) based in DR-Congo.

    “We have evidence proving her crimes,” said Alain Mukurarinda, a member of the prosecution team.

    “We found documents in her house in Netherlands clearly stating she was attempting to form an armed group aimed at committing terror attacks in Rwanda.”

    Ingabire has been in custody since her arrest in October 2010.

  • Kenyan National Arrested Over Fraud

    Rwanda National Police Tuesday arrested Joyce Nguma Wahito -a Kenyan National suspected of using a fake VISA card to withdraw US$ 2000 (approximately Frw 1.2 million) from Bank of Kigali (BK) at Kanombe branch.

    Wahito lied to the bank claiming she was residing at Alpha hotel and managed to withdraw the money. However, upon verification with the hotel management, no one matching her description resided at the hotel.

    Alex Bahizi BKs legal services manager said the Bank was alerted by Emirates bank in United Arab Emirates (UAE) about a fraud that had just been committed.

    Later Emirates bank sought cancellation of the transaction and called for the arrest of the culprit. Emirates bank indicated that the account holder belonged to one Krishan Sinnadurai, a UAE national.

    “Once we learned about the fraud we immediately contacted Rwanda National Police about the matter,” Bahizi said.

    Wahito was arrested while attempting to leave the country through the Gatuna border at about 7 PM.

    Police Spokesman Superintendent Theos Badege said, “We apprehended the suspect as she tried to cross the border thanks to bank of Kigali for sharing information with us as fast as they could”.

    Badege noted that Police was still doing preliminary investigations into the case and fully consider Wahito a prime suspect.

    Meanwhile, the bank had a copy of Wahito’s passport which it obtained through the withdrawal process. It passed it on to Police.

    If she is found guilty, Wahito is likely to be charged with use of forged documents which carries a sentence of between 5 to 10 years.

  • Chelsea Shocks Barcelona

    In a game where no amount of superlatives could do justice to the drama that unfolded, Chelsea somehow found a way to upset Barcelona and clinch a place in the Champions League final in a game that truly had it all.

    From the moment of madness that saw Chelsea captain John Terry sent off for lashing out at an opponent to the English side’s remarkable effort with 10 men.

    The epic choke from the best player in the world to the shocking reality that Barcelona’s season is effectively over.

    It was all tension from the two occasions when only the woodwork and fortune could keep Barca at bay to the dramatic finale when Fernando Torres repaid his record price tag with one flick of his right foot.

    Barca was left stunned by this, scarcely able to fathom the hand fate had dealt them. Messi, so often the architect of others’ heartache, was the victim himself this time, burying his head in his shirt at the end in the knowledge he had underperformed when it mattered most.

    The Spanish club, defending champions, could barely have imagined a scenario where they allowed themselves to be denied at their own fortress of the Camp Nou, by a shorthanded opponent no less.

    But denied they were, by a Chelsea team that simply refused to die and clinched a 2-2 draw in this semifinal second leg to advance to the final through 3-2 on aggregate.

    When Terry was red-carded for the idiotic decision to knee Alexis Sanchez in the back of the leg late in the first half, Chelsea, already behind 1-0 thanks to Sergio Busquets’ opener, seemed doomed. That likelihood apparently turned into a certainty minutes later as Andres Iniesta added another and sent the Camp Nou rocking.

    However, a brilliant chip from Brazil’s Ramires just before the break gave Chelsea a lifeline, even if would mean hanging on grimly for an entire half. Yet that is what they managed, repelling wave after wave of Barcelona attacks that became increasingly frantic.

  • Body of Man Retrieved from Trench

    Police is investigating the possible causes of death of a young man of about 25years whose body has been removed from a trench at Rwampara,Kigarama, Kicukiro district.

    The deceased was identified as Bizimana Jean D’Amour. His body was retrieved on Tuesday morning by the National Police and transported to a Police Based hospital at Kacyiru for postmortem.

    Residents in the area said they learnt of the presence of the body in the trench after a tip off from passersby who noticed only the legs hanging in a trench filled with runoff water.

    The Police spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege said that investigations have already began into the possible caused of the death.

    Muhire Prosper the area official urged area residents living by the trench to be careful because there have been many cases of adults and children falling in the trench although its the first time death has been reported.

  • Obama Accused of ‘False Promises, Weak Leadership’

    The heat button has been punched on in the race for the next US president as Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney officially attacks President Barack Obama accusing him of ‘false promises and weak leadership’ and mishandling of the economy.

    “The last few years have been the best Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do,” Romney told cheering supporters.

    Romney former Massachusetts governor scored victories in five primaries on Tuesday to cement his position as the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election.

    Obama won the presidency in 2008 in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and since then economic growth has rebounded slowly and joblessness has receded gradually while housing prices have continued to drop in many areas of the country.

    “Our businesses have added more than 4 million jobs over the past two years, but we all know there are still many Americans out there looking for work or trying to find a job that pays enough to cover the bills and make the mortgage,” the president Obama said.

    Obama told voters in North Carolina and Colorado – making the case that, however slowly, the economy is growing stronger.

    Romney interjects saying, “As I look around at the millions of Americans without work, the graduates who can’t get a job, the soldiers who return home to an unemployment line, it breaks my heart,” he said.

    “This does not have to be. It is the result of failed leadership and of a faulty vision.”

  • Rwandan Men Could Export Sperms to Uganda

    Rwandan men could make money without having to labour much as Ugandan men are reportedly making money from donating their sperms to fertility clinics.

    However, details have not been disclosed relating to how much a man makes from donating his sperms and quantity of sperm collected.

    It has not been established how much women have to pay for the donor sperm. However, it’s alleged that the amount of money also depends on the type of sperm donor a woman wants to father her kid.

    This follows the increasing demand for donor sperm by wealthy Ugandan women who are reportedly not interested in engaging in a relationship with men but prefer pursuing their professional careers without experiencing the challenges of a relationship.

    According to a Ugandan Daily most women, who are resorting to Artificial Insemination Using Donor Sperm (AID) to get babies are aged between 25 and 45 years.

    Dr. Prakash Patel, a Gynaecologist at the Fertility Endoscopy Clinic in Kampala said, most of the women who are opting for artificial insemination are from the urban corporate class.

    “Women today, are more educated and career oriented and therefore do not have much time on their hands. That is why you see some of them waking up at a much later age to have children,” Patel said.

    Some women resort to using Donor Sperm after discovering that they have infertile partners who desperately want to have children as well.

    Patel said that according to the international law, every fertility clinic is required to limit every sperm donor to no more than eight children.

    However, Patel said the identity of the sperm donor still remains a confidential matter.

    “Before women or couples go through the AID process, they sign documents saying they cannot ask for the identity of their sperm donor and the reverse is true for the donor.”

    “He cannot even ask questions like where his sperms have been used to fertilize which woman” .

    Artificial insemination is a treatment for infertility, when a couple cannot conceive a baby. It involves directly inserting sperm into a woman’s womb.

    “In case the half-brother and half-sister resulting from sperm donation have children, there is a high chance of genetic abnormalism and incest among those children,” he explained.

    “Society cannot have 1000 children looking similar both physically and genetically. The variation of the human race has to continue,” he added.

    There is a strict criterion in which a person first goes through before they become a sperm donor. These include thorough check-ups on the family history, hereditary diseases like diabetes and sickle cells, mental problems, and physical behaviors.

    He should be a person who neither drinks nor smokes. Such a person must also be intelligent and must have good hobbies, according to Dr. Patel.

  • Rwanda Appeals EACJ Judgment in Lt. Col. Rugigana’s Case

    Rwanda Attorney General has asked the EACJ’s Appellate Division to overrule a judgment of its lower court declaring the detention of Lt. Col Rugigana Ngabo by government of Rwandan as being in breach of the fundamental and operational principles of the East African Community.

    The appeal was submited on Monday.

    Appearing before the Appellate Division of the Court, Mr. Aimable Havugiyaremye, counsel for the Appellant (Rwandan Government) argued that not only did the First Instance Division overstep its mandate, the Court did not respect the Vienna Convention and Law of Treaties and therefore did not interpret the matter in good faith.

    The First Instance Division of the Court had in December last year ruled in favor of Ms. Plaxeda Rugumba (sister to Lt. Col Ngabo) who challenged the Rwandan government’s action in Reference No. 8 of 2010.

    In its judgment, the Court also declared the five-month detention of Lt. Col. Ngabo unlawful according to the laws of Rwanda, and that the continued detention of the subject without trial in a competent court was a breach of the same.

    Havugiyaremye further argued that since Lt. Col. Ngabo had been arraigned before the National Military Court of Rwanda, the EACJ’s intervention lacked legal basis.

    He also noted that the matter had been filed out of time, as Article 30(2) of the EAC Treaty provides that proceedings should be instituted within two months of enactment or publication of the directive, decision or action complained about.

    Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, representing the respondent Ms. Plaxeda Rugumba asked the Court to uphold the decision of its First Instance Division, submitting that the EACJ had jurisdiction to entertain the matter according to Article 27 (1) of the Treaty.

    On the issue of filing out of time, Rwakafuzi argued that the detention is a continuous action and that every day the subject is detained there is a new cause for action.

    He argued that if limitation were allowed as argued by the Appellant it would lead to limited justice for East African citizens.

    The Appeal was heard by Justices Harold Nsekela, President, Philip Tunoi, Vice President, Emillie Kayitesi, Laurent Nzosaba and James Ogoola.

  • Rwandan to Coordinate Women MPs in Africa

    Rwanda’s legislator Faith Mukakalisa has been appointed by The Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) as regional coordinator of women parliamentarians for the Africa region.

    Mukabalisa out-competed several women members of parliament from various countries and scooped the regional position.

    She told a Rwandan local daily saying that her success was a result of Rwanda’s outstanding performance in gender promotion.

    The IPU is the international organization of Parliaments established in 1889.

    The Union is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.

    IPU is expected to present a paper stressing the vital link between democracy and development for parliaments around the world in much the same way that trade and development are inter-linked for UNCTAD.

    Abdelwahad Radi the IPU President will address a high-level session at the ongoing 13th UN Conference on Trade and Development taking place between 21-26 April in the Qatari capital, Doha.

  • EAC Leaders to Meet for Extraordinary Summit

    East African Heads of state will meet for the 10th Extraordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State scheduled for 28 April 2012 at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Arusha, Tanzania.

    President Mwai Kibaki of the Republic of Kenya and Chairperson of the EAC Summit, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania, President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda, President Pierre Nkurunziza of the Republic of Burundi and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the Republic of Uganda are all expected at the Summit.

    At the Summit, the Heads of State will consider, among others, appointment of a new Deputy Secretary General from Uganda; renewal of contract of Jean Claude Nsengiyumva (Deputy Secretary General – Productive and Social Sectors); a report of the Council of Ministers on the proposed attainment of a Single Customs Territory; and a report of the Council of Ministers on the application by the Republic of South Sudan to join the East African Community.

  • Police to Implement Tough Traffic Rules

    The Ministry of Internal Security has issued a directive calling for confiscation of driving licenses of grave traffic rules violators.

    Negligence and sheer lack of observation of traffic regulations is blamed on the growing road accidents which continue to claim innocent lives.

    Motorists risk confistication of their driving permits if they do not abide by the traffic regulations

    The directive affects drivers, who attempt to hide their role in accidents that have claimed human lives, accidents that ends up killing or maiming someone as a result of violating traffic rules, multiple traffic violations and driving while one’s license had been confiscated.

    The directive also will affect drivers who are caught drunk driving one year after being penalized for the same offence as well as the driving while under restrictions from a doctor due to disease or other medical reasons.

    According to Traffic Police Commander Chief Superintendent (CSP) Celestin Twahirwa, Police will forward case files of drivers in question to the Rwanda Public Prosecution Authority.

    “Once they are produced in court it’s up to the judge to decide how long they will be banned from driving,” CSP Twahirwa said.

    He noted that traffic Police officers have already been briefed about the directive and are expected to implement it.

    “There is nothing new with the directive as it is has been part of the law since 1987. We are simply going to get tough in terms of implementation,” Twahirwa said.