Claver Twagirumukiza, who was in 2016 sentenced to eight year in prison and fined Rwf2 million by the High Court in Kigali for human trafficking crimes has appealed to the Court of Appeal in Kigali.

Twagirumukiza was arrested in December 2015 after three girls who used to work at his bar in Busia, a town on the Uganda-Kenya border, accused him of subjecting them to sexual enslavement.

The girls reportedly managed to escape from Uganda in 2015 less than a year after Twagirumukiza—who was a truck driver—had trafficked.

They were helped to escape by two other long-distance freight truck drivers.

Upon return, the girls took their case to police. They were all high school graduates.

On Thursday, Twagirumukiza challenged his sentence, saying that evidence on which the High Court based to imprison him did not have substantial elements that constitute human trafficking, apart from the testimonies of the victims.

He added that the girls he allegedly trafficked stole his money and resorted to accusation of trafficking so that he does not pursue them.

"Testimonies by their colleagues at my bar show that I was robbed with the suspects being the three girls who reported me here” he said.

The appellants also submitted that the alleged men who rescued them—Alex and Saidi be brought to court to testify.

Twagirumukiza challenged the medical report that stated that the girls had evidence of old sexual trauma.

His two lawyers asked the court to examine the manner in which the girls were taken to Uganda, saying that it was through consent as opposed to force, threats or kidnap used by human traffickers.

What prosecution says

On their part, prosecutors referred to the Human Trafficking Protocol of the United Nations Convention against transnational crimes, explaining that it requires an analysis of a nexus of activities to notice the crime.

"Moving someone to a country of your choice is a crime, which Twagirumukiza committed on top of deception that they would work in a food store but ended in a bar and sexual exploitation” said Jean Bosco Mutangana, the lead prosecutor.

Mutangana is also the Prosecutor General of Rwanda.

Prosecution dismissed the documents tabled by Twagirumukiza as evidence of theft, saying that the documents were not processed through Rwandan the embassy for authentication as standard procedure.

Prosecution added that the fact that the victims were young girls, they could not choose to allege of themselves as sexually violated as a way of escaping being called thieves.

"A young girl as they were would rather be called a thief that being known for sexual exploitation. The fact that these girls are bold to admit being trafficked into sexual activities, it is true” prosecution said.

Court will decide, on March 15, on whether to continue with the case in substance or drop it.

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