Rwanda arrests opposition leader Victoire Ingabire: investigative body

Rwanda has arrested prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who is being held at a detention facility in the capital Kigali on charges of inciting the public and creating a criminal organisation, a state investigative agency said.

Ingabire was freed in 2018 after serving six years of a 15-year jail sentence handed to her in 2012 following her conviction on charges related to conspiring to form an armed group and seeking to minimise the 1994 genocide.

She is now accused of "playing a role in creating a criminal organisation and engaging in acts that incite public disorder", the Rwanda Investigations Bureau said in a statement late on Thursday.

It did not say when she would be charged in court.

Ingabire, who heads unregistered opposition party DALFA–Umurinzi, returned from exile in the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010 but was barred from standing after being accused of genocide denial.

Last year President Paul Kagame, in power for a quarter of a century, won re-election after securing 99.18% of the vote, according to the electoral body.

Kagame is lauded for transforming Rwanda from the ruins of the 1994 genocide to a thriving economy but his reputation has also been tainted by longstanding accusations of rights abuses and supporting rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

He denies the allegations.

Reuters