Earlier this month, two men were convicted and awarded a suspected sentence of one year, over drug abuse. These are Olivier Kwizera, the ex-national team goalkeeper and an upcoming musician known as Ish Kevin. A suspended sentence is a judicial punishment which is not enforced unless the convict commits the same or another crime during the tenure of this sentence. On top of the sentence, the duo was asked to pay Rwf10,000 in court administrative fees and were freed with immediate effect. Time and again, people are handed suspended sentence but perhaps because of the popularity of the convicts, debate arose mainly on social media with many commentators questioning the circumstances in which a convict gets a suspended sentence. To shed light on this, legal experts who talked to The New Times, started highlighting the categories of crimes as set out in the Rwandan penal law, formerly known as the penal code. The first category includes petty offences which include public intoxication, or neglecting parental responsibilities among others and they are punished by an imprisonment ranging from eight days to six months. Misdemeanor crimes are the second category which include impersonation and property crimes among others liable to a jail term of six months to five years. The third one is felony crimes which include murder and terrorism crimes liable to an imprisonment of five years up to a life sentence. According to legal experts, offenders who qualify for a suspended sentence are mainly drawn from the first and second category – petty crimes and misdemeanors. However, the experts say that the suspect may fall outside the bracket of the two categories named above but get a suspended sentence due to mitigating circumstances. “The convict may be in a bad health condition such that imprisonment may worsen their health status, it might be a mother who is the family’s sole breadwinner, so all that can also be considered,” explained Evode Kayitana, a lawyer and lecturer at the University of Rwanda. He also highlights that the gravity of the crime, remorsefulness and the conduct of the convict in the society also count in informing the judge’s decision to award a suspended sentence. While some people from the debate that followed the release of the two celebrities indicated that giving suspended sentences may incentivize crime, Innocent Muramira, the founding partner of Innocent Law Rwanda, a Kigali-based law firm, dismisses the claim. He said that for a law to be passed, all pros and cons have to be considered and the same applies to a judge before passing a judgement because each of their decisions must be in public interest. “And bear in mind that this is also a way of giving the chance to the lawbreaker to change their behavior. More often than not, a suspended sentence will make them well-behaved and law abiding citizens,” he said. He added that the current legal regime focuses more on rehabilitation instead of punishing, which motivates such decisions. For Jean Paul Ibambe, the legal expert at Legal Aid Forum, such decisions also help in decongesting prison facilities, adding that the more prisoners incarcerated the As of today, Rwanda hosts over 94,000 prisoners in different facilities across the country. Contacted for a comment, Harisson Mutabazi, the spokesperson of the Judiciary said that the suspended sentence is in line with the Rwandan penal law and there should be no qualms about it because it is always given full consideration by the judge before making the decision. “The penal law lays the legal basis for a suspended sentence and when someone is not happy with the decision, they appeal. But all these decisions are discussed for some time, and won’t cause any harm,” he asserted. Article 239 regarding the penalty suspension highlights that If the convicted person was not previously given another penalty of imprisonment exceeding six (6) months, the court can, through a justified order, suspend execution of all or part of the main or additional penalties imposed provided that the main penalty imposed does not exceed five (5) years.
