Former Minister of State for Culture, Edouard Bamporiki, on Monday, January 23, headed to Nyarugenge prison in Mageragere Sector, in Kigali, soon after he was handed a five-year sentence and ordered to pay a fine worth Rwf30 million by the Kigali-based High Court. His arrival in prison was confirmed by Senior Superintendent of Prisons (SSP) Pelly Uwera Gakwaya, spokesperson of the Rwanda Correctional Service (RCS). ALSO READ: Prosecution narrates how Bamporiki was caught red-handed as his graft trial opens Gakwaya told The New Times that: “Yesterday [Monday] the Former Minister of State for Culture, Edouard Bamporiki, was indeed sent by the prosecution in Kigali to Nyarugenge correctional facility in Mageragere Sector as instructed by the court, so that he starts serving his five-year jail term.” Bamporiki went to jail at the end of an appeal filed challenging a verdict issued by the intermediate court of Nyarugenge in September 2022, which sentenced him to four years in jail for crimes related to abuse of the authority given to him by the law. The out-spoken politician was suspended from office in May 2022 in the midst of investigations on charges of receiving a bribe worth Rwf 5 million from local businessman, Norbert Gatera, on promise of helping him reopen his closed alcohol factory. In addition, prosecutors also said he had earlier taken a Rwf 10 million bribe from Gatera, promising to help him get his wife out of Police custody. Gatera's wife faced corruption charges at that time. After more than three months – May to September – of being held under house arrest, Bamporiki was arraigned before the intermediate court of Nyarugenge. The court found him guilty of fraudulent acquisition of another person's property and abuse of the authority given to him by the law. He was then sentenced to four years in jail and ordered to pay a fine worth Rwf 60 million, a ruling the prosecution and the defendant appealed against. His appeal was, among others, based on a claim that the prosecution failed to explain how he abused the authority given to him by the law.
