In Rwanda, a few months before the presidential election, opponent Victoire Ingabire was before the High Court on Wednesday morning to request the rehabilitation of her political rights. Convicted in 2013 for “conspiracy against the authorities” and “minimizing the 1994 genocide”, she was released in 2018 by presidential pardon. Still deprived of her right to run for office after her conviction, the opponent believes she has fulfilled the necessary conditions to recover all her civil rights.
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With our correspondent in Kigali, Lucie Mouillaud
According to Victoire Ingabire, five years after being released, the legal deadline to initiate a rehabilitation procedure, all the elements are there to recover her political rights. “ I participate in community works, meetings in the village where I live, I follow all activities and instructions from the government, so the conditions that I must meet to apply for rehabilitation are there “, she pleaded.
A request which the prosecutor opposed for several reasons: the absence of the opponent for certain required meetings since her release, notably during the confinement period, the ongoing investigations carried out by the Rwandan Investigation Bureau (RIB), and his status within the unrecognized Dalfa Umurinzi party.
“ Dalfa is a party still in the process of being built, so we should not require it to meet the conditions of an approved party. Concerning the files opened by the RIB, we should not have eternal investigations to prevent someone from enjoying their rights, because these files have been open for more than five years. So I showed the judge that I am free and that I remain innocent », Ingabire defended herself again.
Victoire Ingabire has already expressed her desire to run in the presidential election on July 15 this year. An application now dependent on the judgment of the High Court, which will be rendered on March 13.