KIGALI - The Military High Court (MHC) on Monday ruled that the provisional detention of Lt. Col. Ngabo Rugigana be extended by 30 days.

Military prosecutors say that if released, he could escape and jeopardise investigations into his case.

Rugigana’s lawyers had applied for his release as investigations continue.
 
Presiding Judge Maj. Bernard Ndayisaba, said the MHC accepted the prosecution’s request for extended detention "because it was presented in a manner and time that respects the law.”

"The court acknowledges that that request is justifiable. It has ruled that 30 days be added to the provisional detention, the counting of which starts from the reading of this decision” Judge Ndayisaba ruled.

Aformer head of the Engineering Regiment in the Rwanda Defense Forces, Lt Col Rugigana is accused of threatening national security.

His brother Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, is a dissident who was last year convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison for allegedly forming a terrorist group, threatening state security, undermining public order, promoting ethnic divisions and insulting the person of the President.

Military prosecutors said Kayumba used Rugigana to rally demobilised soldiers as well as civilians with the aim of forming a subversive militia group.

Early this year, security chiefs of the Economic Community of Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), disclosed that Kayumba and Patrick Karegyeya, another dissident, formed a new armed group based in the DRC, with the aim of destabilising the region.

Ends