The Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS) on Thursday morning announced the death of Aimable Uzaramba Karasira. He died at Nyarugenge Hospital following what is suspected to have been an overdose of prescribed drugs. Speaking to The New Times, RCS spokesperson Chief Superintendent Hillary Sengabo confirmed the development and explained that Karasira had just been processed for release after completing his five-year sentence at Nyarugenge Correctional Facility. “He signed his release papers yesterday afternoon, and while in transit waiting for his personal effects and for his family to pick him up, he took chunks of medicine which he had been prescribed for a pre-existing condition,” Sengabo said by phone. He added that other inmates and correctional officers saw him and rushed to stop him, but he had allegedly taken a lot of it. According to Sengabo, Karasira was first rushed to the dispensary within the prison, where he received first aid before being transferred to the nearby Nyarugenge District Hospital. “Unfortunately, he passed on at around midnight on Wednesday,” he said. The correctional service said in a statement that it was awaiting medical findings to determine the exact cause of death. Karasira had been serving a prison sentence following his conviction on multiple charges. The former lecturer was convicted on charges of genocide denial and revisionism, justification of genocide, incitement to divisionism, and spreading false information, which prosecutors said were committed through a YouTube channel over different periods. He also faced financial crime-related charges, including money laundering and failure to account for the origin of his assets.
