The two journalists detained on allegations of extortion yesterday lost a High Court appeal in their bid to secure provisional release.

The two; Assouman Niyonambaza and Frank Kalisa were arrested allegedly trying to extort money from a local doctor in order to sit on a story that was to be published in a local newspaper.

The journalists are jointly being tried with a civil servant, Richard Rutagwenda

Early this week, they had appealed to the High Court demanding a provisional release on grounds that their detention was illegal.

"High Court rules that Assouman Niyonambaza, Frank Emmanuel Kalisa and Richard Nizeyimana Rutagwenda be remanded in central prison until the ruling on their trial in substance is pronounced,” read Athanase Bakuzakundi.

Kalisa, popularly known as ‘Ka’ works with Contact FM, while Niyonambaza is the publisher of Rugari, a local vernacular tabloid.

Rutagwenda is attached to the Ministry of Health and he and Kalisa are accused of having been conduits between Niyonambaza and the victim.

The High Court rejected all the reasons given by the accused as baseless and maintained that the judge of the court that decided to remand them for a provisional detention had all the reasons to do so.

The ruling on their case is slated for next week.
The prosecutor had during his closing arguments requested that court sentence all the three to 10 years in prison.

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