WILLINGNESS OF JUDGES TO ASK PROBING QUESTIONS ABOUT DETENTION CONDITIONS
The trial of opposition politician, Victoire Ingabire, provides another example of where judges have failed to probe the detention conditions of defendants.
Victoire Ingabire, the president of the United Democratic Forces (FDU-Inkingi), was brought to trial in 2011 on a range of terrorism and speech-related charges. The terrorism-related charges are based, in part, on the testimony of four men tried alongside her, all of whom pleaded guilty. All the men – Major Vital Uwumuremyi, Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse Nditurende, Lieutenant Colonel Noel Habyaremye and Captain Jean Marie Vianney Karuta –confessed to past involvement with the FDLR. The prosecution alleges that Victoire Ingabire worked with the co-accused men to try to form an armed group, the Coalition of Defence Forces (CDF). The co-accused said that she held meetings with them in the DRC and the Republic of Congo and that she transferred money to them by Western Union through third parties.
The court did not properly test oral evidence given by the co-accused. During the limited questions that the court permitted the defence, it materialized that Lieutenant Colonel
Tharcisse Nditurende and Lieutenant Colonel Noel Habyaremye had been unlawfully detained at Camp Kami for seven months before incriminating Victoire Ingabire. The defence managed to elicit that they were interrogated more than three times by individuals whom they presumed to be intelligence agents. The co-accused said that these interviews took place without the presence of a lawyer and Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse Nditurende told the court, "I didn't know it even existed to be assisted by defence counsel."
The court prevented Victoire Ingabire's defence team from asking questions about detention conditions in Camp Kami, as the co-accused themselves had not lodged a complaint. They were unable to clarify if the co-accusers' evidence may have been coerced or induced. The court made no efforts to obtain notes taken during the interrogations of the co-accused at Camp Kami , even though they might have contained exculpatory information potentially instrumental to Victoire Ingabire's defence, such as indications that the statements were not made voluntarily.120
At this writing, the High Court is yet to pronounce its verdict.
