Lt Mutabazi, co-accused cautioned against contempt of court

The trial of Lt. Joel Mutabazi and 15 co-accused resumed yesterday at the Military High Court with the presiding judge, Charles Sumanyi, warning the defendants against any attempt to boycott trial. The court had adjourned the trial for three months to allow the 16 suspects who are accused of terrorism and treason-related charges to prepare their defence. However, when the court resumed yesterday, some suspects were still unwilling to cooperate but the judge decided to proceed with the hearing and started with Mutabazi’s co-accused, Joseph Nshimiyimana, alias Camarade. At the time of his arrest, Nshimiyimana was an operative of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a terrorist group based in DRC comprising elements responsible for the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. At the beginning of the hearing, Nshimiyimana told court that he was willing to stand trial but needed no legal counsel. Minutes after the prosecution read out the charges against him, Nshimiyimana told court that he was not going to defend himself since the Rwandan laws were “too rigid to favour him”. Judge Sumanyi warned him against Contempt of Court but Nshimiyimana remained defiant. He was ordered out of court for five minutes as a penalty for contempt of court but pardoned and he apologised upon return. “I retract my previous statement, I am not willing to stand trial,” Nshimiyimana said. Prosecution team, led by Maj. Pacifique Kabanda revealed how Nshimiyimana allegedly worked under the command of Mutabazi to coordinate grenade attacks on Kicukiro market that killed two people and injured 46 others in September last year. “Nshimiyimana left Burundi in 2006 to join FDLR in DRC. He later returned to Burundi in 2009 and later sneaked into Kampala, Uganda. While in Kampala, he met several FDLR operatives and changed his name to David Nsubuga,” said the prosecutors. Nshimiyimana was charged with transporting FDLR minerals from DRC to Kampala for sale to raise money to support the terror group. Prosecution added that Nshimiyimana later met with Jeremie Ngendahimana from Rwanda National Congress, who recruited him and even gave him an ID of RNC. “That’s how he met Mutabazi and the duo discussed details of a mission given to them by Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa. Kayumba wanted to know details of RDF movements within the country and Nshimiyimana was providing the information,” said the prosecutors. It is then that a plan for grenade attack on the Kicukiro market was hatched and Nshimiyimana coordinated it, added the prosecution. “Operating from Kabale, Uganda, Nshimiyimana sent two men to Kigali to throw grenades at the market. The men spent a night in Nyabugogo and proceeded to Kicukiro where they executed their plan and sneaked out of the country. Nshimiyimana is on record confessing all these details during the interrogation and the previous hearings,” added the prosecution. Prosecution presented details implicating Mutabazi and Nshimiyimana from whatsapp and skype messages found in the suspects’ phones. The trial is expected to proceed today.