Musanze Intermediate Court is set to rule on a lawsuit against law-enforcement organs filed by four grassroots leaders and security personnel attached to District Administration Security Support Organ (DASSO) in Musanze District. The defendants in the case are Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Rwanda National Police (RNP) and National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA). The plaintiffs are themselves suspects in a related case and dragged the three state agencies to court over what they call illegal arrest, which occurred after they had been granted bail in their own case. They include Jean-Paul Sebashotsi Gasasira, executive secretary of Cyuve Sector; Jean-Léonidas Tuyisabimana, executive secretary of Kabeza Cell in Cyuve, as well as DASSO officers Anaclet Nsabimana and Sylvain Abiyingoma. The four were dramatically re-arrested on June 11, just a day after they had been granted bail by Musanze Intermediate Court. They were arrested from the compound of Musanze prison on their way out. The original case against the quadruple relate to an incident in which they allegedly assaulted and beat up two Musanze residents for not wearing facemasks as part of efforts to contain the novel coronavirus. A lower court, Muhoza Primary Court, had earlier denied them bail before the Musanze Intermediate Court overturned the ruling and allowed them to stand trial while out of prison. Now, the four argue that the three law-enforcement agencies violated the law by ignoring the court’s order granting them bail pending substantive trial and went on to re-arrest and detain them, at Muhoza Police Station. But RIB says the four men were re-arrested over bribery. They reportedly sent money through an emissary to the family of the two victim siblings in a suspected attempt to bribe them into abandoning the case. RIB and NPPA say the four men were plotting to flee from justice. François Nkikabahizi, a Musanze-based prosecutor who represented the three accused institutions in court on Thursday evening, insisted that the four men were re-arrested over a new case, and not the original charges. RIB, NPPA and Police, he said, were forced to act to stop the now-plaintiffs from fleeing from justice in relation to their initial criminal case. However, their lawyer, Emmanuel Habiyakare, objected saying his clients had been re-arrested illegally and should be set free in line with the bail ruling delivered by the same court in the original assault case. He claimed that, on arresting them from the prison facility which they were about to vacate, RIB officers avoided the main road and drove them to the police station through a secondary road. Habiyakare wondered how the arrest warrant was signed by one of the judges who was part of the bench that had earlier granted bail to his clients. “We decided to file this lawsuit because their arrest violates article 151 of the constitution, which stipulates that only a superior court can overturn a court’s ruling,” he told court. Court is set to deliver the ruling on the case on Tuesday.
