The Military Tribunal has denied bail to the 25 terror suspects captured and extradited from DR Congo, where they had formed a militia group that aimed at attacking Rwanda. All the suspects pleaded guilty to being part of an irregular armed group but had asked for bail to be able to stand trial out of custody. They include foreign nationals: Ugandans, Burundians and Malawians. They each face four charges of; formation of an irregular armed group or joining it, conspiracy against the established Government or the President of the Republic, maintaining relations with a foreign government with the intent to wage a war and formation of or joining a criminal group. According to Lt Col Charles Madudu, the presiding judge, the accused cannot be released on bail due to the weight their crimes carry. “Court finds all the crimes against the accused compelling and is remanding them to prison for the next 30 days. They have five days to appeal this decision,” he said. The prosecution had requested that the suspects be kept in custody pending the substantive trial, saying that there was no guarantee that they would not jump bail, once freed. All the suspects joined the terror group from foreign countries, with many saying that they joined from Uganda where they were then processed to travel to DR Congo through Tanzania then Burundi. Even those that said they had an address in Rwanda, they had long left their families to join the militia group. Among the suspects – who are all men – is Maj (rtd) Habib Mudathiru who was formerly with Rwanda Defence Force before he retired in 2013. During the pre-trial hearings, all the other 24 suspects pinned him on being a key architect in the criminal enterprise and many said that he directly recruited them into the outfit. Mudathiru, who was injured during the operation in which the group was captured, was in charge of the training base for the outfit, which calls itself P5 – an outfit created out of a merger of different anti-Rwanda negative forces that include RNC and FDLR among others. All suspects have applied for bail despite some not having an established address in Rwanda. The Burundians particularly requested that they be granted asylum in Rwanda, saying that they would face backlash if at all they are to go back to their country. During the pre-trial hearing, the prosecution said that all the suspects were facilitated mainly by Uganda and Burundi to join the outfit whose activities are detailed in a report by the UN Group of Experts published in December last year. Led by South Africa-based fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa, RNC is a terrorist organisation blamed for a spate of grenade attacks in Rwanda between 2010 and 2014 that killed at least 17 people and injured over 400 others. Kayumba is a fugitive from the Rwandan justice, having been tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
