Businessman nabbed in bribe scam

Police earlier this week arrested Jean Pierre Sembagare, a Kigali businessman, for attempting to bribe his way out of a fraud related case.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Police earlier this week arrested Jean Pierre Sembagare, a Kigali businessman, for attempting to bribe his way out of a fraud related case.

Sembagare was caught in the act as he tried to bribe judge Janvier Muhire of the first instance court of Kagarama, Kicukiro district with Rwf 150,000.

"He was arrested while bribing the judge to help him with a case he has. That case has been going on for some time and he was supposed to appear in court in March but he wanted to bribe his way out,” Emmanuel Kabanda, the Police Spokesperson told The New Times Thursday.

The accused is reported to have unsuccessfully approached the judge with bribes on several other occasions until the fateful day of his arrest.

His arrest came after the judge reported the matter to police authorities and a plan to trap him in the act was hatched.

Sembagare was finally arrested in a bar as he made yet another attempt to bribe the judge.

"Corruption cases such as these, even though not rampant, still exist,” Kabanda admitted.

"There is a law against it (bribery) but people do these things secretly and we have put up measures to be informed so that we can deal with them.”

Ends