Saskia Houttuin
6 December 2011
Rwandan opposition party FDU-Inkingi (United Democratic Forces) has expressed its concern over the Dutch government’s cooperation with the Rwandan judicial system. The European-based party issued a press release after the Rwandan public prosecution received the documents found in Victoire Ingabire’s house in the Netherlands. At first it seemed that only three documents of twenty pages in total were sent. But the Rwandan prosecution is said to have received a much more lengthy package of documents, comprised of approximately 600 pages in total.
“I saw the documents with my own eyes” says Lin Muyizere, Ingabire’s husband who still lives in The Netherlands with their children. “It’s impossible that the Rwandan prosecutor received such a large package of papers.”
FDU-Inkingi’s information resulted from an earlier trial in Rotterdam which granted the Netherlands the right to send Ingabire’s documents to Rwanda, thus allowing the Netherlands to help Rwanda with its request for judicial assistance. Muyizere and Ingabire’s Dutch lawyer Jan Hofdijk tried in vain to stop, but the lawyer’s summons contained no evidence, which led the documents to be dispatched.
But according to the Dutch public prosecutor, the concerns of the Ingabire camp are unfounded: “In this particular case the documents were retrieved following a house search,” explains spokesperson Wim de Bruin. “It is true that these documents were sent to Rwanda, but there were also the remaining contents of the package including phone call scripts, financial documents and witness statements.”
Full faith
FDU-Inkingi is asking the Dutch government to re-evaluate its cooperation with the Rwandan judiciary. “Otherwise this gives the impression that we’re siding too closely with a judicial circus that is disrespectful of equality and thus protecting a dictatorship that ignores the rule of law”. As is said in the press release.
On the other hand, the Netherlands has full faith in a fair trial, as explains an employee of the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs: “The Dutch embassy in Rwanda hired a local attorney that is present at all times and reports to the embassy. This year, both the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda concluded that the defendants will receive a fair trial. There is no evidence that in Rwanda there is bias or political interference.”
Campaign
Muyizere follows his wife’s case closely via Ingabire’s British lawyer Iain Edwards. In the meantime, he is campaigning with fellow party members in Europe. “We are planning a protest in Geneva, but there are also plans to do a protest in The Hague next year.”
Ingabire’s trial has been suspended because, these 600 pages, mostly in Dutch, have to be translated.
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