KIGALI - The head of the National Public Prosecutions Authority, Martin Ngoga, Friday called upon stakeholders to embrace the rights of detained persons, saying that observing their rights is as important as observing those of free persons.

He said this while addressing members of the judiciary and officials from the National Prisons Service, at a meeting that aimed at devising ways of how inmates’ rights can be observed.

The meeting that took place at Hotel Le Printemps, was organized by the Ministry of Internal Security.

"Rights of prisoners are paramount and as equally important as the rights of free individuals. We must therefore have a combined effort in providing better services which will be a cornerstone to proper administration of justice,” the Prosecutor General said.

Ngoga further affirmed that new mechanisms would be devised to make the prisons department more efficient and manageable.

He said that the new regulations will not only serve to solve problems in prisons, but also problems in the prosecution and courts, hence further boosting the dispensation of justice in the country.

"There are numerous allegations and figures about prison statistics that we currently cannot prove as right or wrong. We shall therefore use these mechanisms to find out the truth and work on how we can solve the problems that prisoners face,” Ngoga said.

Present at the meeting was the Commissioner of Prisons Mary Gahonzire and Johnston Busingye, the High Court president.

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