Transcript:
KPFA Weekend News Anchor Sharon Sobotta: The East African, a news website, published a headline today that reads “No recourse in African court for Rwandan Victoire Ingabire.” The site reported that on Friday Rwanda announced that it would withdraw from the African Court of Human and People’s Rights rather than appear to answer the appeal of Rwandan political prisoner Victoire Ingabire. A Rwanda spokesman said that the country’s own courts are competent courts to try all local human rights cases.
Rwandan political prisoner Victoire Ingabire
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has repeatedly insisted that Africans should not have to answer to Euro justice at the International Criminal Court in the Hague and that they should instead trust their own regional and continental courts. However. it now appears that he himself does not.
Victoire Ingabire has been in prison in Rwanda since October 2010, after attempting to run for president against Paul Kagame. She was charged with “genocide ideology,” which means disagreeing with Rwanda’s legally enforced history, because she insisted that not only Tutsis but also Hutus were victims of crimes against humanity before, during and after the 100 days known as the Rwandan Genocide. She was also charged with inciting Rwandans to rise up against the government, and conspiring with the FDLR refugee militia in eastern Congo. Throughout her trial, she asserted her commitment to nonviolence.
In December 2013, Rwanda’s Supreme Court increased Ingabire’s sentence from eight to fifteen years. FULL STORY