Jean de Dieu Maniriho, a medical practitioner who worked at a private clinic in Musanze District, has been convicted of defilement and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The ruling rendered by the Musanze Intermediate Court came after nearly two years of trial, in which Maniriho was charged with defiling and later murdering a 17-year-old schoolgirl, and performing an abortion on her.

During the reading of the verdict on Thursday, July 28, the judge said Maniriho was found guilty of defiling Emerance Iradukunda, who lived in Cyuve Sector of Musanze District.

However, the judge said, the prosecution could not adduce enough evidence to convict Maniriho of murder and performing an abortion.

Maniriho, who did not appear in the courtroom during the hearing, has been in detention since his arrest in November 2020.

During investigation, Maniriho, who worked as a dentist at Mpore Clinic in Musanze town, allegedly admitted to the accusations of defilement and performing an abortion on Iradukunda, but he denied all the charges when his trial began.

His defence team claimed the victim was not a minor and had not been pregnant, but the court said her birth documents proved she was 17 years of age.

The judge added that Maniriho was guilty of defilement because one female witness told court that the suspect had asked her to perform an abortion on Iradukunda, which proved he had slept with her.

Court however cleared Maniriho of the charge of performing an illegal abortion.

Forensic evidence

Iradukunda went missing in November 2020 few days before her dead body was found in farmland in Gacaca Sector and then buried. But at the request of her family and authorities, her body was exhumed and sent to Rwanda Forensic Laboratory, where DNA tests were taken.

According to evidence presented in court by prosecution, her legs, arms and neck were tied with a plastic rope.

Following Maniriho’s arrest, his house was searched by investigators, who found a piece of rope similar to the one that Iradukunda was tied with, a hammer and a mat stained in blood, where it was believed she was killed.

Samson Rwahama, a forensic doctor who carried out the tests on the sample collected from the mat, told court last month that results showed the sample contained Maniriho and another person’s DNA information.

However, Rwahama said, the other person could not be identified because the sample contained too little information, while Maniriho’s DNA information made up a bigger part of the sample.

The judge said the court doubted the evidence provided by the prosecution on the murder charge, hence Maniriho’s acquittal on the charge.

Maniriho’s defence team has 30 days to file an appeal.