{"id":5523,"date":"2013-11-13T18:22:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T23:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2013-11-14T08:58:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T13:58:55","slug":"former-rwanda-presidential-guard-charged-with-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/5523","title":{"rendered":"Former Rwanda Presidential Guard Charged with Terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kagame2-1-300x225\"<\/a>An ex-guard of the Rwandan President has been charged with terrorism after being repatriated to his home country from Uganda in October.<\/p>\n

37-year old Lt. Joel Mutabazi appeared in a military court today alongside 14 other suspects, where he was leveled with 6 charges including terrorism, endangering state security and fomenting revolt.<\/p>\n

The suspect allegedly defected from the Kenyan Defense Force in 2011 over fears for his safety as he anticipated prosecution from the government.<\/p>\n

Until his arrest on October 25th, Lt. Mutabazi is reported to have been living in a property provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).<\/p>\n

According to Ugandan authorities, the suspect was arrested after a warrant was issued by Interpol on behalf of Rwanda. However, the suspect was handed over to the Rwandan authorities without being put through any of the necessary legal procedures.<\/p>\n

Last week, the UNHCR expressed concerns for the safety of the suspect, who allegedly went missing for about 6 days until the Rwandan police announced he was in their custody.<\/p>\n

Daniel Beleke, Human Rights Watch’s Africa director explained that \u201cUganda had granted Mutabazi refugee status in 2011, which means his risk of persecution in Rwanda had been established and recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s unconscionable that they handed him over to the police force of the country whose persecution he fled,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Ugandan Police have revealed that the officer who arrested Mutabazi has been fired and an investigation into the issue has been opened.<\/p>\n

Lt. Mutabazi is reported to have been the target of a failed abduction and assassination attempt while living in Uganda.<\/p>\n

In a press release<\/a> published recently, the Rwandan National Congress, which the suspect is alleged to be a member, insist that neither the suspect nor the RNC \u201care involved in terrorist activities in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lt. Mutabazi appeared in court without any legal representatives today, explaining that he wasn’t ready for trial since he didn’t have a lawyer and is short of funds to hire one.<\/p>\n

As a result the Judge has postponed the case against Lt. Mutabazi to the 25th, to enable him and the other accused persons sort out their legal representation.<\/p>\n

Source: Human Rights Watch & The East African<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ex-guard of the Rwandan President has been charged with terrorism after being repatriated to his home country from Uganda in October. 37-year old Lt. Joel Mutabazi appeared in a military court today alongside 14 other suspects, where he was…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[343,4973,4975],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}