The Kicukiro primary court has postponed the bail hearing of Diogene Mulindahabi, the principal of the IPRC Kigali campus, and 11 other suspects to November 10. The defendants are being prosecuted over several charges related to misuse of public funds. According to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), the alleged crimes they are being accused of include the use of forged documents, embezzlement, and theft. During the bail hearing that took place on Thursday, November 2, the presiding judge ruled to adjourn the hearing to allow the defendants to access the full dossier and prepare before the beginning of the trial. Their trial was supposed to start at 8 am. However, by then only the prosecution and some lawyers were in the courtroom. Around 09:25 a.m. the case was finally mentioned and the judge asked the suspects if they have lawyers or will defend themselves. Furthermore, it turns out some have them while others do not due to various reasons. Aloys Mutabingwa who is representing one of the officials pointed out that they are facing some difficulties and are not ready to start the trial. One of the reasons he cited was failure to access the RIB dossier. In addition, Mutabingwa also disclosed that among the issues they are facing and which they want to be addressed is limited time to talk to the suspects. On behalf of all the lawyers, he concluded by requesting a week to prepare for the trial. The prosecution was given time to comment on that request and agreed to it arguing that it’s their right to access their dossiers and prepare for trial. In addition, they assured to help the defence team in accessing the RIB dossier as soon as possible. After hearing from both sides, the presiding judge ruled to postpone the hearing to next week to give them time to prepare as well as avoid delaying pre-trial detention among others. The suspects have been arrested in different periods and the alleged crimes resulted in a two-week temporary closure of the campus premises amid investigations, according to a statement released by the Education Ministry on Sunday, October 23.
