Lifting of judicial restrictions on Kabuye, we remain vindicated

We welcomed the news this week that all judicial restrictions against Director of State Protocol, Mrs Rose Kabuye, have been lifted. We have said it from the very first day that the French do not have a case against Kabuye. As the drama surrounding the French Judge, Jean Louis Bruguiere, that led to arrest warrants against senior Rwandan officials unfolds, the cynicism and deception surrounding the basis of the trumped up charges is slowly being exposed. We watched with much despair and bewilderment when the Germans late last year, detained Kabuye then extradited her to France. There was national and international uproar, with protests for the French to stop harassing her. Many advised at the time for the French to drop the case which was based on very flimsy political grounds. It was patently clear that some within the French establishment were failing to deal with the reality of leadership change in Rwanda. It was at this time that perhaps the French judiciary could have saved face, done the right thing and dropped the charges. Kabuye stood her ground in months of sustained harassment, when she was freed to come back home for Christmas, perhaps her tormenters thought she would not return to France to face justice – she did. With the courage of her convictions, Kabuye has faced her detractors head on. It is demonstrably foolhardy for any right thinking judge to pursue a trumped up case, motivated more by political vendetta. Testimonies recorded under the cover of darkness, will not stand in a court of law as ‘key’ witnesses withdraw their testimonies, revealing to all the insidious circumstances under which the evidence was arrived at. Most importantly, as the case against Kabuye falls apart, the world now has real hard evidence of how easy it is to manipulate the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction for political ends. Ends