Ex-minister appeals tax evasion sentence

KICUKIRO - Former Minister and Member of Parliament, Prof. Munyanganizi Bikoro, has appealed against last month’s verdict by the Kagarama Lower Instance Court, in which he was sentenced to two years in prison. The former State Minister for Water and Mines, lost the corruption case alongside his co-accused Luis Duenas Herrera and Jean Bosco Bavakure. The trio appealed to the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court to overturn the earlier ruling saying that the court did put into consideration their evidence in passing the ruling. The court found the politician, guilty of evading taxes on the importation of building tiles he received from a Spanish company, Espina Obras Hidraulicas. Bikoro’s co-accused, Luis Duenas Herrera, the representative of the company, was convicted on two counts of corruption and tax evasion, and sentenced to three years in prison. Jean Bosco Bavakure, an engineer with the National Drinking Water Purification Programme (PNEAR) who was also the overseer of the project, was slapped with a one year jail term for complicity in the tax evasion scam. “I am a man of integrity, I have worked for this country with honesty for over 30 years, I can not be corrupted by mere Rwf 1m,” Bikoro told court. “Secondly, in 2006 when Espina Obras Hidraulicas won a tender and I had not even bought a plot, I was given these tiles early this year, how could I have planned for corruption in three years.” Bikoro’s lawyers say all elements the court based to pass the verdict did not follow the law because prosecution had failed to show intention of corruption. “Corruption is determined with intensions, accepting free things with intentions to do something in return, but prosecution can not show us where this intention was.” one of the former lawmaker’s lawyer Mutembe said. “Besides receiving gifts, there is no law that prohibits someone to give a friend a gift,” Mutembe challenged. The ruling has been set for October 2. Ends