A Nyamagabe District official was arrested on April 6, after a video, circulated on social media allegedly showing him engaged in a sexual act at a bar in Kigali City.
Recorded on phone during daytime with people watching and moving about, the video shows the district official, who is a data manager, and another person engaged in what looks like sexual intercourse.
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The district official is accused of public indecency, an offence that attracts a sentence of six months to two years, the spokesperson of Rwanda Investigation Bureau, Thierry Murangira told media.
The incident is believed to have happened on April 1.
What the law says about public indecency
The Nyamagabe District official is suspected of committing an indecent act in public, as determined by the 2018 penal code.
But investigators and prosecutors will have first to provide enough evidence proving that what the suspect did constitutes the crime of public indecency, said John Mudakikwa, executive director of the Center for Rule of Law Rwanda (CERULAR), an NGO.
"There’s a challenge today because the law does not explain clearly what constitutes an act of public indecency,” Mudakikwa said.
"So, it is up to the investigator’s interpretation. It is not directly clear that what the two people did in the video proves an act of public indecency as determined by the penal code.”
Citing previous cases which were not referred to court due to the "loophole” in the penal code, Mudakikwa said the Supreme Court should clarify or enumerate acts that constitute the crime of public indecency.
Publishing indecent information
Nonetheless, if the incident is proven to be a criminal offence, Mudakikwa said, more people could be charged, including the ones who circulated the video on social media, as determined by the law on cybercrimes.
Article 38 of the law on cybercrimes, a person who publishes, transmits or causes to be published any indecent message using a computer or a computer system is liable to a prison sentence of six months to two years and a fine of Rwf1 million to Rwf2 million.
Article 34 of the same law says that a person who publishes or causes to be published pornography through a computer system or through any other means of information and communication technology is liable to three to five years in prison and a fine of Rwf1 million to Rwf3 million.
But, according to Innocent Muramira, a Kigali-based lawyer and founder of Muramira & Co Advocates, the investigators and prosecutors can decide whether it is fit to charge or not to charge the person who recorded the video and those who circulated the video.
Accomplice?
"The suspect’s accomplice can as well be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law because she was also committing an indecent act in public,” Muramira said.
Both the district official and the person they were together in the video should be in the same case, said Mudakikwa.
The New Times could not establish whether any other arrests have been made.
What the law says about public servants
In the penal code, the articles on aggravating and mitigating circumstances are silent about a person’s job except in cases of corruption and embezzlement, the lawyers said.
"If any disciplinary action is to be taken by the suspect's employer, it should be based on the court ruling,” Mudakikwa said, citing the principle of presumption of innocence.