Kicukiro Primary Court on Tuesday remanded five men suspected of plotting terrorism activities on Rwandan territory through an Islamic fundamentalist movement. The five men, all Muslims, are facing charges including plotting against an established government or the President of the Republic, conspiracy to plot against the government and terrorism. According to prosecution, the five men conducted research, held meetings and discussions about the Hizb ut-Tahrir (translated as Party of Liberation), a movement of Muslim fundamentalists bent on liberating itself from governments and establishing an Islamic state that follows Islamic principles. The Hizb ut – Tahrir is an international pan-Islamic political organization with an aim the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate to resume Islamic ways of life in the Muslim world. Prosecution said that in 2012, one of the suspects, a one Amran Rumanzi who is one of the five suspects, made research on internet and found many books talking about Islam, among which he found information about the Hizb ut – Tahrir movement. Rumanzi later made a plan of implementing the idea of establishing principles of the movement in Rwanda through three ways: first by holding one-on-one sensitisations, hold communal gatherings, and finally conquer the government as a result of the dialogues. Prosecution said that the suspects conducted meetings in their respective homes on a rotational basis and kept their meetings secret from both the religious and government authorities. Pronouncing the court’s bail ruling, the presiding judge remanded the five saying that there were strong reasons for suspecting them to have committed the crimes among which he said that the suspects themselves did not deny that they had held discussions about Hizb ut – Tahrir; where two of them Rumanzi and Zaidi Nizeyimana said they sensitized others on the principles of the movement. “Rumanzi and Nizeyimana accept that they did research and found out that the movement was about liberation, and they got other books and taught others about the existence of an Islamic State. They repeated this before the court,” said the presiding judge. “After listening to all sides and analyzing the reasons presented by prosecution seeking to remand the suspects, we find that the reasons valid and order the suspects be put on remand for 30 days,” the judge ruled. Among the reasons advanced by prosecution in seeking their remand was the seriousness of the crimes the suspects face.
