Verdict for Rwanda's Ingabire postponed
2012-06-29 20:10
Kigali - A Rwandan court Friday postponed the verdict for opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, accused of bankrolling terrorism and denial of the 1994 genocide, until September, the prosecutor's office said.
"The verdict has been postponed till September 7. The judges said they were still examining some points," Alain Mukurarinda, spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, told AFP.
Ingabire, leader of the Unified Democratic Forces (FDU), a political grouping that has not been allowed to register as a party, is charged with "giving financial support to a terrorist group, planning to cause state insecurity and divisionism".
Ingabire, a Hutu, denies the charges.
Prosecutors in April called for her to be given a life sentence.
Ingabire, an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame, has been in custody since her arrest in October 2010 and has boycotted proceedings since April after the court cut short a witness who accused Rwandan authorities of rigging evidence against her.
Rwandan prosecutors claim to have evidence of Ingabire's "terrorist" activities, including proof of financial transfers to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu rebel movement based in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The FDU accuses Rwandan authorities of fabricating evidence against its leader with the sole aim of preventing her from participating in the political affairs of the small central African country.
