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Rwandan opposition leader Ingabire denied bail

18 December 2010 01:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Rwanda’s high court has rejected a bail application by opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who is charged with threatening national security and public order, and extended her detention, the Prosecutor General’s office said on Friday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Ingabire was also charged in October with helping to form the Coalition of Democratic Forces (CDF), a militant group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A statement issued by the prosecutor’s office welcomed the court’s decision not to free Ingabire on bail and to extend her pre-trial detention by 30 days.
A spokesman for the office said this was done to give other states time to act on formal requests for legal assistance from the Prosecutor General’s office.
"We are cooperating with the governments of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), the Netherlands and Switzerland, who have received our formal requests," said Augustin Nkusi.
On Monday, Dutch prosecutors confiscated material belonging to Ingabire from two houses in the Netherlands at Rwanda’s request.
The prosecution believes Ingabire wired money to members of the FDLR, a DRC-based Hutu rebel group, to help it wage war against Rwanda, Nkusi added.
Sylvain Sibomana, secretary general of the United Democratic Forces, Ingabire’s unregistered party in Rwanda, told Reuters Ingabire would remain in prison until the National Prosecution Authority had completed its preliminary probe into a dozen allegations and decided on which charges she would stand trial.
"She was taken to the high court in handcuffs but there was no judge to take the decision, and finally the jailers informed us that the Intermediate Court ruling was confirmed. Nobody knows yet the grounds for the judgment," Sibomana said.
"The charges are politically motivated and have been changing continually," he added. Ingabire pleaded not guilty to the charges in a court hearing in October.
Ingabire returned to Rwanda in January from exile in the Netherlands to contest presidential elections won overwhelmingly by President Paul Kagame. She was barred from standing after being accused of crimes linked to genocide denial.