. Earth Science News .
AFRICA NEWS
Four Rwandan ex-top officials handed jail terms

by Staff Writers
Kigali (AFP) Jan 14, 2011
A Rwandan military court on Friday handed jail terms of between 20 and 24 years to four former comrades-in-arms of President Paul Kagame, tried in absentia for threatening state security.

"The Military High Court has sentenced to 24 years in prison the former army chief of staff General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and Major Theogene Rudasingwa," a court official said.

Former spy chief Patrick Karegeya and Gerald Gahima, the former attorney general and Rudasingwa's brother "were both handed terms of 20 years", the official said, asking not to be identified.

Nyamwasa and Karegeya are in exile in South Africa while Gahima and Rudasingwa are exiled in the United States.

The four were being prosecuted for "disturbing public order, threatening state security, making insulting and defamatory remarks, sectarianism and criminal conspiracy."

Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa were also charged with desertion from the army. Karegeya and Gahima were tried as civilians. Under Rwandan law if military personnel conspire with civilians to commit a crime, the civilians are also tried in a military court.

Rwanda's military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jill Rutaremara told AFP that further charges against the four will follow.

"Other charges including terrorism will also be brought by the state prosecution," he said, adding "they are still under investigation" and evoking the "complexity" of the inquiry.

The prosecutor had asked for terms of 35 years against Nyamwasa and Rudasingwa and 30 years for Karegeya and Gahima.

The four, all of whom were once in Kagame's inner circle, last September co-authored a document slamming what they said was the repression of freedoms in Rwanda since Kagame's arrival in 1994.

They accused Kagame of being authoritarian, corrupt and driving the country back towards a conflict on the same scale as the 1994 massacres.

"The people of Rwanda, together with rest of the international community, have a moral duty to work to end this repressive system of government," the four said in a 60-page report.

Rutaremara and Kagame's defence advisor Brigadier General Richard Rutatina retorted the following month that none of the four had the integrity or the moral authority to criticise the Rwandan government.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Africa News - Resources, Health, Food



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


AFRICA NEWS
South Sudan: Birth of a failed state?
Juba, Sudan (UPI) Jan 12, 2011
Sporadic violence has marred the historic referendum in southern Sudan, cockpit of a 22-year civil war in which an estimated 2 million people perished. But the largely peaceful weeklong polling due to end Sunday is widely expected to lead to the backward region's independence - and a future so uncertain that skeptics are already talking about the birth of a failed state. The ref ... read more







AFRICA NEWS
Fear, confusion as Haiti tent camp shuts

USGS unveils California megastorm scenario

Residents abandon Brazil disaster town

Disease threat for Sri Lanka flood victims

AFRICA NEWS
Google buys eBook Technologies

Direct Observation Of Carbon Monoxide Binding To Metal-Porphyrines

Liquid Pistons Could Drive New Advances In Camera Lenses And Drug Delivery

How Do You Make Lithium Melt In The Cold

AFRICA NEWS
FAO unveils new guidelines on fishing discards

EU's mackerel blockade will not affect Iceland: Reykjavik

EU closes ports to Iceland's mackerel

Overfishing blamed for ocean reef loss

AFRICA NEWS
Greenpeace slams BP over Russia deal to explore Arctic

Warming to devastate glaciers, Antarctic icesheet - studies

Russia reaches first stranded fishermen

Russia frees two of five ships trapped in ice floes

AFRICA NEWS
Germany shuts 934 bird farms, piggeries after food scare

Chickens modified to halt bird flu

India to try growing salt-tolerant crops

Germans go organic in dioxin scare

AFRICA NEWS
Tsunami survivor escapes deadly Australian floods

Tropical cyclone causes damage in New Caledonia

Disease threat for Sri Lanka flood victims

Brazil braces for more rains, mourns 500 dead

AFRICA NEWS
ECOWAS defence chiefs to meet on Ivory Coast

Chinese vice-premier in Senegal to end African tour

French strike killed French hostage in Mali: Qaeda

2.5 million face starvation in Somalia, PM tells UN

AFRICA NEWS
Climate tied to rise, fall of cultures

Impact Of Traffic Noise On Sleep Patterns

Humans First Wore Clothes 170,000 Years Ago

Publication of ESP study causes furor


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement