Umurabyo journalists in court today

The case involving the editor of the controversial weekly tabloid, Umurabyo, Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, and her co-writer, Saidath Mukakibibi, is set to kick-off at the High Court today. According to the prosecution, Uwimana and Mukakibibi, who were arrested on July 9, 2010, were denied bail by the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court due to the seriousness of the charges. The charges include defamation, threatening state security and propagating the Genocide ideology and divisionism.In an interview with The New Times, the Spokesperson of the National Public Prosecution Authority, Augustin Nkusi, the duo’s case go will directly into substance in the High Court. “Depending on the gravity of the charges, some cases don’t have to be heard by lower courts but go directly to the High Court on first instance,” “We are ready to go into the details of the case and put before court the evidence that these two published articles with the hidden agendas of undermining state security and the government and also deliberately attacking the person of the President,” Nkusi said. Uwimana and Mukakibibi pleaded not guilty to the sedition charges while appearing before the Nyarugenge Court.Prosecution alleges that the duo committed serious crimes through their July-June 2010 publications issue no.21, 23, 28 and 29 of Umurabyo aimed at inciting violence in public, discrimination, sectarianism and Genocide denial. Prosecution says that Uwimana published articles which suggested that there are differences in the country’s armed forces as well as several other articles which exhibit the Genocide ideology, sectarianism and divisions based on ethnicity. Ends