The case in which former senior leaders of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of Rwanda (ADEPR) are being prosecuted for alleged mismanagement of the institution’s funds continued early this week with an auditor whose report pins them appearing before court to give testimony. In the trial, 12 leaders including Bishop Jean Sibomana, the former legal representative of the church, Bishop Tom Rwagasana his deputy, Christine Mutuyemariya who was in charge of administration and finance, among others, are being accused of mismanaging and embezzled church funds amounting to Rwf5 billion. They allegedly committed the crimes between 2015 and 2017 when they were at the helm of the institution. They had all earlier been acquitted by the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court, but prosecution appealed at the High Court. The appeal case started in 2019, and from its early stages, it was characterized by the defendants’ protest against the validity of the audit report that was being used to prosecute them, arguing that they had not participated in the audit process. Due to this, the High Court ordered a fresh audit in which all the accused would participate. In October last year, the new report was done and presented to court, but still the defendants came out to protest against it on similar grounds of not having participated in the audit process. On Monday, September 20, at the invitation of the judges, Emmanuel Habineza the auditor who did the report appeared in court to explain how the audit was done. During the hearing, he explained that the audit he did was investigative in nature as opposed to the ordinary ones done on an annual basis. “It was aimed at unearthing the faults that took place, so that evidence can be presented to court,” he said. He said it was made mainly basing on documents from banks and customs. Asked whether he met with the accused during the audit process so that they could offer their explanations, Habineza responded that he only met with those from whom he required information. However, Rwagasana, Sibomana and Mutuyemariya told court that they never met with Habineza in person. He admitted that he did not meet with them, but said he sent them a document in which he asked questions in regard to the audit. Rwagasana and Sibomana acknowledged receiving the document, but still questioned the fact that Habineza sent it to them when he had already submitted the audit report to Rwanda Governance Board (RGB). In response, Habineza said he had only submitted a draft report to RGB, not the final one. The defendants still insist that the audit is not valid if Habineza does not meet with all of them during the process. Court adjourned the hearing to November 15.
