Terror suspect Lt. Joel Mutabazi today pleaded not guilty to all charges leveled against him before the Military Tribunal in Nyamirambo, Kigali. Mutabazi, a former Rwanda Defence Forces officer, was appearing alongside 14 others. Presiding Judge Charles Sumanyi read out the charges to Mutabazi before asking him to enter a guilty or not guilty plea. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. After a court recess of about 20 minutes, Judge Sumanyi ruled that the case will continue in camera on prosecution’s request. Prosecution moved the application for in-camera proceedings on the basis that the case is highly sensitive to national security. The session was also attended by several foreign observers, including top diplomats. Mutabazi deserted the army and fled to Uganda in October 2011, from where he allegedly operated a terror cell responsible for a spate of grenade attacks in Kigali. The suspect, who was the subject of an Interpol red notice, was handed over to Rwandan authorities in October and first appeared in court on November 13. Prosecution charges that he’s a collaborator of the DRC-based Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the militia largely blamed for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as well as renegade former Rwandan military officers based in South Africa. The government says both the FDLR and the renegade officers are behind the grenade attacks that rocked the capital Kigali in recent years.
