A total of 23 inmates in Nyarugenge prison have been facilitated to get free lawyers and secured plea bargaining agreements with the prosecution that saw some sentences reduced or suspended. The development was disclosed by Legal Aid Forum Rwanda through their official Twitter account. “This October, our lawyers offered support to Rwanda’s Judiciary during the launch of plea bargaining, they provided free legal assistance to 24 inmates in Mageragere Prison in the plea bargaining process,” read part of the tweet. In addition, they pointed out that as a result, 23 of the inmates reached an agreement and the court approved all 23 agreements. Some of the inmates have been released and others are set to go home soon. In law, plea bargaining is the practice of negotiating an agreement between the prosecution and the defence, whereby the defendant pleads guilty to particular charges in exchange for a lenient sentence. The Plea bargaining was rolled out in Rwanda on October 12 with a total of 373 suspects who have expressed interest in it and registered their cases to be handled through the procedure. The justice system started implementing the procedure, beginning with a five-year pilot phase in five intermediate courts: Gasabo, Nyarugenge, Gicumbi, Muhanga, and Musanze. During the pilot phase, plea bargaining is only being applied in cases involving assault and theft. Plea bargaining is one of the measures that the justice sector is counting on to not only reduce the backlog in courts and overcrowding in prisons but also deliver justice in a faster and more efficient way. According to Faustin Ntezilyayo, the Chief Justice of Rwanda the goal of the procedure is not to allow people to escape justice for the crime they have committed or limit the jurisdiction of the prosecution or courts. “The goal instead is to encourage the accused persons to accept responsibility when appropriate and bring faster justice to the accused, the victims, and also the community,” he said. On the other hand, during its official launch Moise Nkundabarashi, the President of the Rwanda Bar Association noted that it is important to come up with such solutions in the criminal justice system, to deal with the problems that are facing the justice sector currently. “At this point, looking at the issues and challenges that we are facing in our correctional services, we cannot afford to continue operating in the same way that we used to,” he said. Plea Bargaining is among other changes poised to reshape the justice sector those include a New policy for increased use of non-custodial penalties, The use of contractual judges, a Digital system for monitoring the performance of judicial officers, and Ongoing amendment of criminal procedure to allow more discretion to judges.
