Lawyers for Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire say she is being targeted by a biased justice system after her arrest on Thursday evening, claiming there is no evidence linking her to an alleged plot to incite public unrest.
“We are gravely concerned by this unlawful and arbitrary re-arrest, and the ongoing pattern of political intimidation of our client Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza," her team of international lawyers said in a statement Friday.
"There is, again, no lawful basis for her arrest and detention and we call for her immediate release.”
Ingabire was arrested on Thursday and is being detained in the Rwandan capital Kigali.
The Rwanda Investigations Bureau (RBI) links Ingabire to alleged subversion after her name was mentioned in an ongoing criminal case against nine people accused of plotting to remove President Paul Kagame's government without using military force.
She appeared in court on Thursday to be questioned by prosecutors who charged that she had been communicating with the nine suspects.
Prosecutors also allege Ingabire has provided financial support and training to teach them how to overthrow the government without using weapons.
Her lawyers said that she appeared in court on Thursday to deny the accusations.
Following the hearing at the High Court, judges said they were not satisfied with Ingabire’s answers and ordered the RIB to launch an investigation, the court said in a statement.
The judges gave prosecution lawyers two weeks to return to court with formal charges against her.
Dissent on trial
"The reason why these nine people are on trial at the moment is because in October 2021, nine members of Madame Ingabire's political party took part in an online training presented by a European NGO called the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies," Iain Edwards, one of her lawyers from 1MCB Chambers in London, told RFI.
"This trial has been dragging on for months and months," he added.
Edwards said that during the hearing one of the accused was asked specific questions about Ingabire.
"The accused was saying she's not behind it at all. It's got nothing to do with her. The judge didn't pay any attention to his protestations, turned to the prosecution and said: 'Well, we've been hearing all about Victoire Ingabire. Why was she not charged?'
"But there's nothing to charge her with," said Edwards.
Some of the defendants are also accused of planning to attend "Ingabire Day", which her supporters hold every year in October to commemorate her imprisonment in 2012 and release six years later.
Journalist Michela Wrong, author of several books on Rwanda, said Ingabire's arrest suggests the regime is seriously rattled.
"If the arrest of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is meant to show strength, it does the opposite," she wrote on social media platform Bluesky.
"With rumours swirling about Paul Kagame's health and the regime under intense US pressure to sign a peace deal with the DRC, the Rwandan regime feels beleaguered," Wrong added.
Rwandan opposition leader asks court to restore her civic rights
One of Rwanda's rare opponents
Ingabire, 56, left Rwanda in March 1994 to study and live in the Netherlands, where she founded the DALFA-Umurinzi party in 2006. The party, led by Ingabire, is not recognised by the Rwandan authorities.
She returned to Rwanda in January 2010 to participate in the presidential elections scheduled to take place later that year.
Instead, she was arrested and faced an array of charges including active participation in a criminal organisation.
She was jailed in 2012 for 15 years but Kagame pardoned her in 2018.
Late last year, Ingabire's lawyers living outside Rwanda said they were concerned for her safety after comments Kagame reportedly made on 16 November 2024.
"Their days are numbered," the Rwandan leader said, referring to people who were pardoned and released from prison but who repeat the same crimes.
“Those who must be corrected, we correct them,” he said, speaking to party faithful at the Unity Club in Kigali.
Ingabire's legal team say the remarks echo public statements Kagame made in July 2024, where he said Ingabire “will not end up well”, and that the Rwandan government “would find an appropriate solution” for her. He has publicly described her as a “small woman of a genocidaire” and ridiculed her for viewing herself as a political opponent.
Judiciary 'subject to pressure'
"It is well established that the judiciary in Rwanda is not independent," said Edwards. "It is absolutely subject to pressure from the Rwandan government, especially in these big political cases."
He says Ingabire risks imprisonment for crimes she has not been involved with.
Last July, Kagame tightened his 25-year grip on power when he was re-elected after securing 99 percent of the vote.
Though he has been praised for the way he helped transform Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, his reputation has been tarnished by repeated accusations of rights abuses and supporting M23 rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
