KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) ? A Rwandan court sentenced the country's top opposition political leader to eight years in prison on Tuesday for treason and on a charge unique to this central African nation torn apart by vicious ethnic attacks 18 years ago ? genocide ideology.
The opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire, returned to Rwanda in 2010 after living abroad for 16 years and quickly visited the country's genocide memorial, where she asked why Hutus killed in the violence were not recognized like the minority Tutsis were.
More than 500,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In the wake of that violence, the government set out to de-emphasize ethnicity. Many in the country now identify simply as a Rwandan, not a Hutu or Tutsi.
The government accused Ingabire ? who has had contacts with the FDLR, a group of Hutu fighters in Congo ? of trying to raise an armed group, a charge Ingabire denied. The court on Tuesday acquitted her on charges of promoting ethnic division and genocide ideology.
Ingabire's lawyer, Iain Edwards, said Ingabire will appeal the court's ruling.
"That's the problem I have with this government. If you talk about ethnicity, they say you are a divisionist," Ingabire said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press after she was put under house arrest. "I think the better solution is you talk about it and find a solution."
The government's chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, responded that Ingabire's statements were not simply a free-speech issue because she could incite Rwanda "to once more explode" as it did in 1994.
President Paul Kagame has been lauded by the international community for leading Rwanda through nearly two decades of peace, for advancing women's rights and for leading the country through strong economic growth. But the court's sentence reinforces the view by political analysts that opponents of Kagame have little space to operate in post-genocide Rwanda.
Though Rwanda appears serene on the surface, Ingabire's political party ? FDU-Inkingi ? calls Kagame a dictator. The party urged Rwandans to remain calm and "to get ready for the day to march until freedom is won."
"This is a conclusion of a long chapter of hope that the current dictatorship would understand how important peace, genuine unity and sustainable reconciliation are," a statement from a party leader Boniface Twagirimana said.
Judge Alice Rulisa, speaking for a three-judge High Court panel, said Ingabire was given a lighter sentence because she had written a letter to Kagame asking for leniency. Edwards, the lawyer, said Ingabire admitted to no crimes in the letter.
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Straziuso contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/opposition-leader-sentenced-8-years-rwanda-125343563.html
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