The accused include Thomas Mugabe, Sostène Ndibwami, Alexis Kagame and David Murekezi who were previously acquitted of all charges by the High Court annulling the ruling of the Intermediate Court of Nyagatare taken in 2014.
The case was filed by six girls from secondary schools in Nyagatare district who claimed that the four men are part of a group seducing young girls for sexual acts.
They were convicted of defilement where Mugabe Thomas, Kagame Alexis and Murekezi David were handed 10 year sentence while Ndibwami was handed a suspended sentence of one year and fined one million francs.
They were released after proving that the girls with whom they had sex were mature and that they did it after mutual consent.
The four men were brought again to the Supreme Court on 21st May 2019 where prosecution requested to nullify the decision of the High Court to consider the sentence they had been handed previously by Nyagatare court.
Prosecution had earlier pleaded that the High Court didn’t take into account the enormity of defilement and claimed that these men submitted forged documents to prove that the girls were 18 years old.
It is alleged that the hearing was attended by a woman living in Uganda who had been told that her daughter is jailed in Rwanda and the only way to get her out of prison is to confirm the daughter is aged over 18 years.
The woman is said to have facilitated the provision of a forged documents for her daughter’s identity. The woman later revealed the truth after learning that she was dragged into dirty affairs tampering with justice for her daughter.
She provided daughter’s immunization card which helped the prosecution to establish she was not of consent age.
The four accused men requested court to uphold the previous ruling saying it was decided after a deep investigation into the case.
As the accused appeared in the Supreme Court today to provide explanations on alleged offenses, one of the defense lawyers was absent for ill-health leading to the postponement of the trial.
The court adjourned the next sitting to 11th June 2019 at 8am at the Supreme Court.
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