APPEAL:four-year jail sentence

The former leader of PS Imberakuri, Bernard Ntaganda, yesterday, appeared in the Supreme Court for the second time to appeal against a High Court ruling.Ntaganda had first appeared before the Supreme Court in January appealing against a four-year jail sentence handed to him by the High Court. The Supreme Court had ordered he put his appeal in detailed writing and requested prosecution to make a written submission as well. The two parties appeared in the court yesterday and handed their written submissions to Justice Immaculée Nyirinkwaya. "The Court has decided that the ruling will take place on April 20,” announced Nyirikwaya, after receiving the submissions. Ntaganda, who appeared without a lawyer since he said he claimed he was able to defend himself, claimed that the statements that formed the basis for his sentencing were wrongly interpreted.Some of Ntaganda’s statements included "Tura tugabane niwanga tubimene”, loosely translated as "we must share, otherwise we will destroy everything’.In uttering this statement he was referring to the Rwanda Patriotic Front which he said had to share power with his political party, which, according to the prosecution, was tantamount to inciting violence. The court had also found him guilty of sensitising the population to rebel against government programmes, including grassroots-based credit savings cooperatives (Umurenge SACCOs_. It had also found him guilty of inciting ethnic divisions and attempting to organise demonstrations without official authorisation.In yesterday’s court session, the prosecution was represented by Alain Mukuralinda.