PROBE - Prosecution wants freed city businessman Barry Ndengeyingoma a.k.a Ndengeye re-arrested and detained as they wait for a request from the Belgian government to extradite him. Prosecutor Bonaventure Ruberwa told High Court yesterday that the extradition request, which is normally processed through diplomatic channels, is being prepared to have Ndengeye taken back to Belgium. Ndengeye, who is said to be currently in Belgium where he went to sort out charges against him in a Belgian court that sentenced him to three years in absentia, was not represented at the trial. His lawyer Mbaga Tuzinde Mbonyimbuga confirmed his client is in Belgium.“Though I have no latest updates on what has transpired at the court after he produced himself in Belgium, can only confirm that he went,” he said yesterday.His co-attorney Jean Bosco Kazungu preferred not to discuss this particular case with the press when contacted. During yesterday’s hearing, Ruberwa argued that Ndengeye be re-arrested as obliged by the different international conventions to which Rwanda is signatory. “We don’t want our country to be a den of wrongdoers from other countries,” he said.Ndengeye was tried and subsequently convicted to three years in absentia on charges of alleged money laundering and uttering falsified documents. “We have strong belief that this man will flee because he used multiple identities when he was in Belgium….this is why we want to keep him in detention as we wait for the appropriate paperwork to come through,” Ruberwa said. It is however not clear how Ndegeye who owns a state-of-the-art discotheque and a fleet of expensive cars- including a limousine and Hummer- will be extradited to Belgium.According to the Constitution, no Rwandans can be subjected to extradition whereas prosecution has the jurisdiction to prosecute people who committed crimes on Rwandan territory. Ndengeye was arrested early December following a red notice by Interpol Belgium. He was released on New Year’s Eve by magistrate Valens Nkurunziza of the Gasabo Higher Instance Court, who ruled that the tycoon did not have a case to answer in Rwandan courts. The three-man quorum, which was presided over by Pie Mugabo set the date of the ruling next Monday, January 21.Ends
