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Mozambique: Lawyer unable to contact abducted Rwandan refugee – AIM report
4:26 CAT | 03 Jun 2021
File photo: Social Media via BBC
The lawyer for Rwandan refugee Ntamuhanga Cassien, who was allegedly kidnapped from Inhaca island in the Bay of Maputo on 23 May, has been unable to establish contact with his client, and believes he has been handed over to the Rwandan embassy for later extradition to Kigali, reports Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
The lawyer, Simão Buque, says he has undertaken measures to ensure that his client will have the right to defence, but so far without success. He says he received information on Tuesday that Cassien was being held at the 18th police precinct in Maputo, He went there, but was unable to establish any contact with his client.
He was granted access to two cells in the precinct, but when he tried to enter a third, he was told he could not go in, because it was a cell for women prisoners.
As a result he could not confirm whether the Rwandan had indeed been held in a police cell. “While I can’t see him and speak with him, everything is in the realm of speculation”, said Buque.
As for contacts with the Mozambican Foreign Ministry and with the Rwandan embassy, Buque gave no details, but said a series of measures are under way to ensure that Mozambican law is observed.
On Tuesday, Buque submitted a complaint to the Maputo City Attorney’s Office. The Association of Rwandan Refugees in Mozambique (ARRM) has also asked the City Attorney to intervene.
Extraditing Cassien to Rwanda would run into legal difficulties, since there is no extradition treaty between Mozambique and Rwanda. All the required legal procedures must be followed, demanded Buque, bearing in mind that Cassien has refugee status, granted by the Mozambican authorities more than four years ago.
Now it remains to be seen whether any foreign embassy is willing to speak out publicly on the case and call on the government in Maputo not to extradite Ntamuhanga Cassien.@HeikoMaas @EU_MOZAMBIQUE @AuswaertigesAmt @GermanyinRwanda https://t.co/Sx4st57sfP pic.twitter.com/9YnmodqBii
— Michael Hagedorn (@mich_hagedorn) June 2, 2021
Cassien used to work as Director of the Rwandan fundamentalist Christian radio and television station “Amazing Grace”, and is known for his sharp criticisms of the policies followed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
In 2015, a Rwandan court sentenced Cassien to 25 years in prison for conspiracy against the state, and complicity in terrorism and murder. He was accused of working with the US-based opposition party, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), the former militias involved in the 1994 genocide, and ex-Rwanda army officers who formed the FDLR rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He escaped from prison in 2017, and made his way to Mozambique where he obtained refugee status. On 6 May this year, he was sentenced in absentia to a further 25 years imprisonment, after he was found guilty of facilitating terrorist activities.
The “Amazing Grace” radio and television station was owned by a United States national, Gregg Schoof. His licence to run a broadcasting station was revoked in April 2018, after transmitting a sermon that denigrated women, calling them “dangerous” and “evil”. Schoof issued a statement in October 2019 criticising the Rwandan authorities for loosening restrictions on abortion and teaching about reproductive health in schools. “Is this government trying to send people to hell?”, Schoof asked.
After Schoof held what the government regarded as an illegal meeting with journalists to criticise the closure of “Amazing Grace”, he was arrested and deported to the US.
According to the ARRM, Cassien was abducted from Inhaca (where he owns a shop) by eight individuals claiming to be Mozambican police agents, and wearing police uniforms, accompanied by a man who was supposedly a Rwandan official.
Even if all the charges Cassien faced in Rwandan courts are true, that would not justify gross violation of Mozambican sovereignty by agents of the Rwandan government, if they were indeed involved in the abduction.
THÉOGÈNE TURATSINZE (2012) AND NTAMUHANGA CASSIEN (2021): THE MOST HIGH-PROFILE VICTIMS OF PAUL KAGAME’S REGIME IN #MOZAMBIQUE
Read More:https://t.co/OAeM9IcLSZ pic.twitter.com/aj3yJV3l8f
— CDD Moçambique (@CDD_Moz) June 3, 2021
Mozambique finally extradites Rwandan journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga to Kigali. Reports indicate Ntamuhanga is airborne to Kigali. @hrw @amnesty pic.twitter.com/uGHjbx8gLk
— Faluku Twesigye (@FaroukTwesigye) June 3, 2021
Source: AIM
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