Police: Rwigara not in custody

The spokesman for the Rwanda National Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police Theo Badege, has dismissed as rumors claims that they are holding former presidential aspirant Diane Shima Rwigara and her family members. Badege told The New Times Wednesday that instead Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers had conducted a search of the Rwigara home to look for evidence in in the two cases in which family members are being investigated. “Diane Rwigara is not in police hands. She is not in custody. What is going on is preliminary investigations in two charges—forgery which concerns Diane personally and then tax evasion which concerns the family business,” he said. The forgery charge comes after Rwanda’s Parti Social (PS-Imberakuri) threatened legal action against Rwigara who it accused of presenting a pre-signed list of its members as part of the signatures she submitted to the electoral commission. Rwigara managed to get only 572 signatures, 28 short of the 600 required by the electoral law. According to the law, the independent candidates are to collect 600 signatures—at least 12 from each of Rwanda’s 30 districts. However, the commission said that on scrutiny, they established that 34 of the people who purportedly signed for Rwigara were actually members of PS-Imberakuri who had not consented to signing for her. The second investigation is being conducted jointly with Rwanda Revenue Authority, according to Badege. He said that besides searching the premises, Diane and some members of the family had been summoned to Police for interrogation. “We invited them for further interrogation and we seized their mobile phones and computers which we believe might contain further information to help our investigation,” he said. After gathering enough evidence, Badege says that the file will be handed to prosecution for necessary action. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Police: Rwigara not in custody