On Monday, May 30, 2022, one year to the day of his arrest, Aimable Karasira, a former university professor, once again appeared before a Rwandan court, where he denounced the conditions of his detention, claiming that he was tortured, such as beatings, sleep deprivation, and comparing his treatment to the way blacks were treated under the apartheid regime. He also said that according to his torturers, the only reason he and his fellow prisoners of opinions were still alive was because of the Commonwealth Summit in Rwanda at the end of June: “They told us (…) that as soon as CHOGM was over, they would kill us.”
Aimable Karasira is a former university professor in Rwanda who became known to the Rwandan public at the beginning of the summer of 2019, a period during which he made several interviews that were highly critical of Rwandan society and the ruling power, his interviews on different YouTube channels quickly accumulated several million views.
On May 30, 2021, he was arrested for “denial” and “divisionism”, a few hours after publishing a video in which he detailed the assassination of members of his family by the troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), currently in power in Rwanda, as well as the way in which he was persecuted and isolated within Rwandan society for several years, In Rwanda, to speak of the victims of the RPF is to question the very foundations of power. .
This Monday, May 30, 2022, one year to the day after his arrest, Aimable Karasira appeared in court, smiling and fist raised despite a worrying weight loss and obvious physical weakness.
At the opening of the session, he asked for a postponement of his trial, because of the conditions of his detention which prevent him from preparing his defense. He stated that the conditions of his detention were deplorable, claiming that he and other Rwandan prisoners of conscience such as the opponent Christopher Kayumba or the journalist Cyuma Hassan Dieudonné were subjected to special treatment in which they were tortured, beaten and deprived of sleep: “They do everything to torture us, it’s done like in the movies: night noises, lights on all night … “.
The only reason he and his fellow prisoners are still alive, according to his torturers, is because of the Commonwealth Summit scheduled for the end of June in Rwanda: “They told us (…) that as soon as the CHOGM was over, they would kill us.”
Ruhumuza Mbonyumutwa
Jambonews.net
