Police mounts search for four Butare Prison escapees

SECURITY ORGANS are searching for four convicted inmates who broke out of Butare Prison in Huye District after they dug through the prison’s wall to create an escape route.

Monday, August 19, 2013

SECURITY ORGANS are searching for four convicted inmates who broke out of Butare Prison in Huye District after they dug through the prison’s wall to create an escape route.The inmates, all men, went missing about a week ago but news of their escape emerged just recently as efforts to re-arrest them intensified.They were all convicted for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, according to sources.Prosper Mugororotsi, the Prison Director, confirmed the jailbreak. The fugitives included three inmates who have been serving life sentence and two others had been handed sentences of 20 and 30 years in jail.Efforts to get their identities were futile by press time. However, Mugororotsi said one of the fugitives has since been re-arrested.Tight-lipped He however could not divulge details about how the convict was found, saying it could interfere with ongoing investigations."Investigations are still ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the jailbreak,” Mugororotsi said."We are confident that even those who are still on the run will be re-arrested,” Mugororotsi said.It is rare for inmates to escape from Rwanda prisons, especially with the change in the country’s prisons system from punitive to corrective one.There are about 55,000 inmates in Rwandan prisons, according to officials, and the majority of them are Genocide convicts.