Rwandan court dims presidential hopes of opposition female politician

By Staff Reporter

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Rwanda’s high court rejected on Wednesday opposition politician and dissident Victoire Ingabire’s request to be cleared of a legal ban on convicted persons to enable her to run in the July presidential elections.

Ingabire was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013 for terrorism and genocide denial.

The 55-year-old spent eight years in prison before receiving a presidential pardon in 2018.

She asked the court last month to overturn the ban on convicted aspirants who have been jailed for six months or longer and allow her to compete in the July 15 polls.

Ingabire argued that she had complied with the conditions imposed after her release.

But the high court in Kigali ruled that “it is impossible to overturn the conviction, since the conditions imposed at the time of her presidential pardon have not expired.”

Ingabire cannot appeal the court decision for two years.

She said in a statement that the verdict “underscores prevailing concerns about the independence of the judiciary, restriction of political rights and the suppression of alternative voices in Rwanda.

“This verdict arrives at a critical moment as Rwanda prepares for an election in which I hoped to participate as a candidate,” she said. “Today's decision is a stark reminder of the barriers to political participation and the urgent need for reform in our country's governance.”

Ingabire returned to Rwanda in 2010 from The Netherlands where she had lived since 1994.

She was arrested and accused of denying the reality of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, after calling in January 2010 for the perpetrators of crimes against members of the Hutu majority ethnic group to also be prosecuted.

President Paul Kagame will seek a fourth term in office in July after his ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), endorsed him as its candidate last week.