KIGALI - Police have in custody a man who was caught red-handed bribing a judge with Rwf 7m so that the latter passes a sentence in favor of a suspect currently in detention.

The development comes after a string of arrests of people, including a lawyer, who were caught in the act of bribing judges.

"The man called Jean Damascene Ntiryigema was arrested red handed on Monday night as he was handing out the bribe,” Police Spokesman John Uwamungu said, noting that Ntiryigema was arraigned yesterday.

According to police, Ntiryigema was arrested trying to buy the freedom of incarcerated businessman Alexis Mugarura who is currently remanded at Kimironko Prison.

It is said that Ntiryigema and Mugarura are friends.

Mugarura was arrested together with the Executive Secretary of the Eastern Province Charles Gasana, who is accused of breach of contract in the tendering of the provincial headquarters.

The two appeared in court the following day (Tuesday) for the hearing on their provisional release which the judge turned down.

On the fateful evening, Uwamungu said the accused was nabbed at Bambino bar (Kabuga).

"We got the information following a tip-off from the judge who informed us that she was going to be given a bribe.”

 Prosecution Spokesperson Augustin Nkusi also confirmed the development.

Nkusi revealed that Ntiryigema had initially promised to pay a total Rwf 10m to secure the release of his friend and the 7 million was a down payment of the total payment.

The remaining 3 million would be paid after Mugarura’s release.

Mugarura and Gasana are accused of having flouted tendering procedures in the construction of the Eastern Province headquarters in Rwamagana and according to prosecution, hundreds of millions are said to have been mismanaged.

Mugarura, a businessman was contracted to construct the building at Rwf1.7bn but later, the contract was changed to increase an additional Rwf 1.5bn to the originally contracted amount.

The two had appeared in court following an application by prosecution seeking the extension of their pre-trial detention after the initial 30 days that they had been remanded elapsed.

Prosecution had made the application to get more time to complete investigation before the trial starts in substance.

Several corruption cases have been going on in different courts involving high ranking government officials.

Notable among these is the case in which former cabinet minister and parliamentarian, Bikoro Munyanganizi who is accused of having used his position to import materials for the construction of his house.

He was asked to step down as MP just months into his four-year term, to pave way for investigation and his case is due on 21st of this month at Kagarama Lower Instance Court.

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