KIGALI: Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire was unexpectedly freed from jail on Saturday after President Paul Kagame permitted her early release, alongside two thousand other prisoners.
“I thank the president who gave me this liberation,” Ingabire said as she left Mageragere Prison in the capital Kigali. “This is the beginning of the opening of political space in Rwanda, I hope so,” she added calling on Kagame “to release other political prisoners.” The surprise release of 2,140 prisoners, including Ingabire and musician Kizito Mihigo, followed a cabinet meeting on Friday at which a presidential order of “mercy” was approved.
Ingabire returned from exile in the Netherlands intending to run for president in 2010 as leader of the FDU-Inkingi party.
However, she was arrested, charged with terrorism and treason and sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in jail after a widely criticised trial. Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, was accused of “genocide ideology” and “divisionism” after publicly questioning the government narrative of the 1994 genocide of mostly Tutsi people that killed around 800,000 people. Rwandan musician Mihigo was arrested in 2015 and jailed for 10 years for conspiring to assassinate the president.
Veteran cricket journalist Sharda Ugra said the sport is used as a vehicle for a muscular nationalism
The council launched an online campaign calling for USC to reinstate Tabassum’s invitation to speak
The UAE saw record rainfall with 254 mm falling in less than 24 hours in Al Ain, a city on the UAE-Oman border
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese singled Guerot out for praise on Tuesday
The bill passed a vote in Britain’s parliament with 383 in favour and 67 against
The Supreme Court has previously refused to accept two formal apologies from Ramdev and his firm’s co-founder...