Nyarugenge Intermediate Court (NIC) has remanded a local lawyer to prison for allegedly falsifying court verdicts. Jean Rugendo, a defence lawyer, forged a Nyarugenge Intermediate Court verdict which alleged that the court had ruled in favour of his client, Oscar Kajanagye, in a land wrangle case.Narrating how the court found out about the fraud, the Chief Clerk of the court, Stanislas Sibomana, told The New Times that, last week, Kajanagye came to the court oblivious of the fact that he had a forged verdict which he wanted it stamped for enforcement.“This document had a green ink stamp with contradicting names of the judges. The forged decision bore the name of a primary court judge yet it was meant to be the intermediate court,” said Sibomana.He added that the forged document was signed on August 10 by a former court registrar who is now in jailed over falsification of court documents.“Cleophas Twagirayezu, a former court registrar, was already in jail on August 10, the date of which it is claimed he signed the document. So, when Kajanagye brought the forged verdict to us, we immediately notified the police and he was arrested, but he was later released because he was innocent and didn’t know anything about the forgery,” said Sibomana.Testifying before court during the pre-trial hearing, Kajanagye told court that Rugendo gave him a verdict claiming that he had won a case. Rugendo convinced Kajanagye that he had got the verdict from the Nyarugenge court.“After hearing all sides, the court orders to remand Rugendo in prison for 30 days as he waits for the trial in substance.Although Rugendo claims he is a member of Judicial Defenders Corps, the body said they disowned him about three years ago when he was involved in a similar case.“By the time he was arrested, he was no longer a member of the Defenders Corps. We terminated him and that is why his name did not appear on the defenders lists of 2011 and 2012,” said the head of Judicial Defenders Corps, Elias Hakizimfura.Rugendo was arrested and released on bail three years ago in Muhanga District. Although he was not authorised to leave Muhanga, he moved to the Eastern Province, where he resumed work without authorisation from the defenders corps.“We learnt about his operations in the Eastern Province and asked judges there not to consider him as our member. We have been monitoring him closely because we know of the evil he is capable of and his recent arrest is not a surprise to us,” said Hakizimfura.
