Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) has apprehended two teachers aged 59 and 26 for allegedly defiling four nine-year-old girls who they were coaching. The men, one from Rubavu District and another from Nyamasheke District, are said to have separately abused the young learners when they were supposed to be having evening classes (cour du soir), or academic coaching. The Nyamasheke suspect allegedly defiled three of the girls. They were arrested on April 30, according to Thierry B Murangira, RIB spokesperson. Murangira revealed that the suspected perpetrators are in detention at Shangi and Gisenyi RIB stations pending further investigations into the cases. He warned that RIB will not tolerate paedophiles and other sexual predators, among other criminals. He urged the public to desist from crime and to report abuses and other offences on time. Child defilement attracts between 20 and 25 years in prison upon conviction. The sentence is harsher – life imprisonment – when the victim is younger than 14 years of age.
