Rwandan opposition leader Ingabire appears in court on subversion charges

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) – Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire on Tuesday appeared in a courtroom in the capital, Kigali, for the first time since her arrest on subversion charges last month.

A long-time critic of President Paul Kagame, Ingabire was previously jailed and has been at times the only government opponent to keep up her activism from inside Rwanda, while most of Kagame’s opponents are in exile.

Rwandan prosecutors accuse her of plotting to incite public unrest. The charges could send her back to prison for many years if convicted.

Prosecutors say she was in contact with nine other suspects, including a journalist named Theoneste Nsengimana. The others are members of the DALFA-Umurinzi group, a party led by Ingabire that is not recognized by authorities.

Ingabire has denied the charges, previously calling offenses against her politically motivated.

Her bail hearing on Tuesday was postponed to July 15 after she refused a court-appointed local defense attorney and prefered her choice of a Kenyan team of lawyers. The court ruled that the case will be heard in a week whether or not she assembled a defense team of her choice.

Ingabire had previously led the FDU-Inkingi group, a coalition of opposition parties that also was never permitted to register with the government.

She spent 16 years in exile in the Netherlands and returned to Rwanda in 2010 to launch her political career. She was imprisoned before she could contest the presidential election.

She was later found guilty of conspiracy to undermine the government and denying Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, charges she denied. Sentenced to 15 years, she was freed in 2018 after obtaining a presidential pardon.

Three decades after the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Kagame has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery. But he also has faced criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition. He denies the accusations.