The primary court of Nyarugenge, on Wednesday, September 27, postponed the bail hearing of the case involving Jean Bosco Halerimana, the former Director General of Rwanda Cooperatives Agency (RCA) and his co-accused.

Harelimana is facing various charges including violation of public tender procedures and misuse of public resources.

He is accused along with Claver Hakizimana, the officer responsible for tenders at RCA and Liliane Gahongayire, a former storekeeper at the agency.

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Their pre-detention trial was meant to take place on Wednesday, September 27 at 9am, but it did not, owing to some hindrances presented by the defence.

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In particular, Hakizimana's lawyer requested postponement of the case, saying the hearing came on short notice, and he had not managed to get sufficient time to prepare the case with his client.

Though the prosecutors and Harelimana's lawyer indicated their readiness for the hearing, but the judge decided to adjourn the trial to allow Hakizimana more time to prepare.

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The trial will now take place on Thursday, September 28.

Harelimana was arrested on September 14. The Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) said his arrest was as a result of an investigation that had been ongoing for some time.

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In January, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente dropped Harelimana as head of RCA, owning to managerial failure. Details related to his sacking were not made public at that time.

The RCA is an institution charged with promoting and regulating the cooperatives sector in Rwanda. Earlier this year, figures from RCA indicated that there were about 9,706 cooperatives in Rwanda with a share capital of more than Rwf47.8 billion.