Human Rights Violated Without Remedy, Rusesabagina Quits Trial

KIGALI, Rwanda - March 15, 2021 - PRLog -- Paul Rusesabagina, Hotel Rwanda humanitarian, has had his legal rights trampled since August 27, 2020 when he was kidnapped and taken to Rwanda. In recent weeks, while he has been awaiting trial in Kigali, he has raised multiple violations of his human rights in written and oral pleadings, and sought remedies including time to prepare his defense. On Friday, March 12, 2021, the Rwanda High Court denied all Paul's requests, and ordered that the trial start immediately.

Earlier Judge Muhima, after a prison visit on March 10 with the defense and the prosecution present, recognized that Paul doesn't have his casefile, that he needs a computer, and that his documents have been confiscated and this must be corrected. However, by Friday morning March 12, Judge Muhima ordered that the trial should start without delay.  The only reasonable inference to be drawn is that he received pressure to circumvent his decision, and go forward with the trial. How can the two approaches be reconciled, unless there was outside intervention?

The first witness then walked directly to the microphone to start incriminating Paul. When  Paul was informed he would NOT be able to prepare his case in advance, but instead would have to do it while evidence was being presented against him, he stood up and declared:

"I'd like to tell the court and the judges that my basic rights to defend myself and to have a right to a fair trial were not respected by the court. Therefore as my rights have been violated, I'd like to tell the court that I don't expect any justice in this court. And so I want to inform you that I will not be appearing again in court for the hearings. I have stopped my trial."

The violations of Rusesabagina include these facts. Rusesabagina was;

• kidnapped and drugged by an agent of the Rwandan government,
• brought to a country to which he would never voluntarily return,
• "arrested" without a warrant as required under Rwandan law,
• held in incommunicado detention,
• tied at the face, legs and hands for three days,
• signed incriminating statements after having been interrogated in the absence of a lawyer.

Fundamental violations of Paul's legal rights include;

• he has been deprived of lawyers of his own choosing,
• his international lawyers are denied access to him and the court,
• all legal documents, including those marked "privileged and confidential" containing defence strategy have been systematically confiscated, never returned, and read at the highest levels of government,
• Paul has no access to the 5000+ pages of documents in his case file,
• Paul is being tried together with 19 other accused, all of whom have pled guilty and incriminated him, in proceedings in which he is given no prior notice of which witnesses will enter the courtroom and when.

Rusesabagina has been held in solitary confinement for six months in Mageragere Prison. President Kagame has publicly pronounced that Paul is guilty of the charges, effectively obliterating his right to be presumed innocent. The Rwandan prison authorities have withheld Paul's prescription medication since 17 September, leading to daily recurrent health problems and significant weight loss.

Any one of these violations would be enough to prompt an independent judiciary to permanently stay the proceedings against an accused. Taken collectively, they represent a wholesale and systematic deprivation of Paul's rights.

It is no longer enough to call for Rwanda to give Paul a "fair trial." To do so, ascribes a legitimacy to the proceedings that they do not deserve. The proceedings against Paul Rusesabagina constitute an abuse of process, because it is now impossible to piece together the constituent elements of a fair trial. The report on legal violations can be found here: Free Rusesabagina Miscarriage of Justice Overview (https://hotelrwandarusesabaginafoundation.files.wordpress...)

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