Kigali-based tycoon François Xavier Mironko on Wednesday, February 22, started a three-month jail term following a decision by the Supreme Court. A five-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo sent the renowned businessman to prison for contempt of court, both in writing and during hearing. The high-profile panel of judges handed him a two-year sentence but ruled that he will serve three months in custody, while 21 months will be suspended owing to the fact this was the first time he had committed the offence. Court ordered for his immediate arrest. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has sent an individual to jail over contempt of court. A suspended sentence is a legal arrangement in which an individual who has been found guilty of an offence is not handed a custodial sentence but risks imprisonment for the same crime if they commit another crime during a specified period of time. The judges determined that Mironko committed the offence of contempt of court through a letter he sent to the Chief Justice dated January 26, 2023 and the comments he made during subsequent proceedings on Wednesday, February 22, in which he accused the bench of bias. This, the judges said in their three-page ruling, was in addition to the businessman’s refusal to adhere to an earlier order by the court to use an expert in his case. Mironko, the owner of the Gikondo-based Mironko Plastics Industries which makes plastic materials, had been locked in a legal dispute related to commercial interests. The panel of judges also included Immaculeé Nyirinkwaya, Alphonse Hitiyaremye, Richard Muhumuza and Aimé Muyoboke Karimunda.
