Rwanda's
disqualified presidential candidate Diane Rwigara now faces fresh and
more serious charges that include treason, inciting revolt and revealing
“sensitive information”.
She was arrested on Friday afternoon alongside her mother Adeline and sister Anne.
Although
the trio had always been driven back home by police after routine
interrogations at the Criminal Intelligence Department (CID) in Kigali,
Friday was different in light of the newly revealed accusations.
“The
decision to arrest was in addition to the behaviour of the suspects
during preliminary investigations, particularly their consistent refusal
to cooperate with the police and publicly revealing information that
is, by law, supposed to be confidential,” Police spokesperson Theo
Badege said in a statement Sunday.
Detain a suspect
“The
Criminal procedure law gives investigators powers to detain a suspect
for a maximum of five days in order to conclude investigations and
decide, based on the evidence, whether or not to forward the case to
prosecution.”
Hours before Ms Rwigara’s arrest, The EastAfrican
interviewed her at her residence in Kiyovu, where she denied all the
charges, claiming that her family was being “persecuted for criticising
the government”.
“I am at the CID from early morning
until 2am or 3am almost every day. Police comes to pick us and drops us
back home almost every day. Money was taken from our bank accounts; the
accounts were frozen and all our businesses have shutdown,” she claimed.
RELATED STORY: Rwigara family: Victims or troublemakers?
“We
kept money in our house because the accounts were frozen, but even that
money – close to $150,000 was taken by police. Our movements are
confined and everyone we talk to is monitored.”
Ms
Rwigara said that police had confiscated all her family members’
national IDs, passports and drivers licences, which had made it
“impossible” for them to move from the house.
“The
first week we had no food and no way to call our lawyer or talk to
anyone. They surrounded our house with lots of security agents and
journalists,” she said.
Ms Rwigara’s troubles spiralled shortly after she had been disqualified from running for president in the August polls.
The
National Electoral Commission disqualified her on grounds that she had
presented fake endorsement signatures in her presidential bid as
required of independent candidates.
A few weeks after
the elections, Ms Rwigara was detained at her offices in Nyamirambo
where police made a search and confiscating documents and computers,
before driving her to her home, where more documents, gadgets and money
were confiscated.
Were detained
They
were then handcuffed and taken to police for interrogations but
returned home - and for that period they were asked to report to police
for routine interrogations.
A few days later, their
house was again raided by police again - and Rwigara and her mother were
detained for “disobeying summons to report to police for
interrogation”.
On Monday morning, a local website
published a story alleging a plot by the Rwigaras to overthrow the
government, working with several exiled groups including Rwanda National
Congress (RNC).
The website also published phone
conversations between Diane’s mother and her young sister (Diane’s
maternal auntie) who lives in Canada during which she expressed her
fears that vital files had been intercepted in Diane’s luggage, which
could implicate her in activities to overthrow the government.
Ms Rwigara has previously denied working with exiled opposition groups.
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