Court postpones ruling in PS graft case

The Intermediate Court of Nyarugenge, yesterday, adjourned its ruling on the corruption trial involving the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Cyrille Turatsinze, and his co-accused, Renée Rwego Harelimana, to Thursday.The presiding judge, Maliciane Mukagasana, said evidence provided by both prosecution and the defence team was not enough.“This court finds that evidence provided by both sides was not enough and it has decided to conduct its investigations to find more facts,” Mukagasana said, while reading the court’s decision.“It has therefore decided to adjourn its ruling to August 9 [Thursday] for the court to have more time to carry out its investigations,” she added.Neither the accused nor their defence lawyers was in court. However, the court room was filled to the capacity by relatives and friends of the accused, who had turned up for the ruling.Rwego and Turatsinze, who are still detained at Kicukiro Police Station, were arrested on July 20- 21 respectively.Turatsinze is accused of soliciting a bribe of Rwf2 million from one Jerome Nshimiyimana, a businessman, to allegedly aid him win tenders in the ministry. His arrest followed that of Rwego, who was allegedly sent by Turatsinze to collect the money on his behalf.Prosecution argued that the accused violated article 635 of the new penal code, and proposed an individual maximum sentence of seven years and a fine of Rwf20 million.Article 635 states that “any person who explicitly or implicitly demands or receives gifts or any other illegal advantage or accepts it as a promise in order to accomplish an illegal act or refrain from carrying out his/or her duties, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of between five and seven years and a fine of two to ten times the value of illegal advantage demanded.

National

Court postpones ruling in PS graft case