Antoinette Dushimirimana lied about the whereabouts of her husbands, claiming that he was missing yet she knew where he is.
A woman who raised a false alarm about the whereabouts of her allegedly missing husband will face charges relating to flouting immigration and emigration laws.
Antionette Dushimirimana, appeared in several videos and also wrote a letter claiming that her husband Gilbert Shyaka went missing in Rwanda yet she was aware that he had crossed over to neighbouring Uganda.
Dushimirimana will be prosecuted for flouting immigration and emigration laws in Rwanda, KT Press has learnt.
The Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration (DGIE) confirmed that it has Monday October 11, 2021 filed a case with prosecution which could result in charges for the suspect.
Reliable sources revealed to KT Press that on August 22, 2021, both Dushimirimana and Shyaka were traveling from Gicumbi to Gatuna with a plan to cross into Uganda across the Gatuna border.
Border post immigration staff soon suspected and stopped the two individuals to request them to present their identification documents, which Shyaka did, but Dushimirimana claimed that she didn’t possess any.
While the immigration staff were inquiring for more details of their travel plan from Dushimirimana, Shyaka is believed to have allegedly sneaked off and switched off his phone and was nowhere to be seen.
Reliable sources indicate that the next day (August 23) Shyaka managed to cross to Uganda via the porous borders of Cyanika, facilitated by an organised group of four smugglers.
After illegally crossing to Uganda, sources indicate that Shyaka was transferred to a CMI detachment in Kabale with the assistance of a CMI agent.
In the meantime, his wife Dushimirimana is reported to have been questioned by security officials and she confessed to the escape plan with Shyaka and apologised for being aware of her husband’s plan but not revealing it to relevant authorities.
It is said that even when she refused to divulge any further details into the illegal border crossing plan, she was later on released.
This didn’t stop her from trying to illegally cross to Uganda again using the same porous Cyanika borders.
On September 29, she was again arrested as she attempted to illegally cross into Uganda following several communications with Shyaka on how she would cross through the same borders with assistance of smugglers.
KT Press has learnt that she had planned with a Uganda group of smugglers to enter Uganda to join her husband Shyaka but also go straight to the United Nations offices in Kampala to seek asylum for security reasons which she had claimed in writing and local social media (YouTube) interviews.
On September 22, Dushimirimana published a letter to the President of the Republic allegedly seeking justice for her missing husband, Shyaka and she was recorded on several local YouTube channels making the same allegations and insinuating that Shyaka was abducted.
However, investigation into her claims have shown that before he attempted illegally crossing to Uganda, she was in direct contact with Shyaka the husband via the phone where she got directives of who to contact and how to be aided in order to cross through the porous borders.
Investigations show that on several occasions before her arrest, she had received messages with contact numbers of several Ugandans to reach out to for help.
According to Immigration officials, Dushimirimana’s case was filed with Prosecution on October 11 and she is accused of an offence of non-compliance of Immigration Laws in Rwanda, an act provided and punished by Art 44 of the Law No. 57/2018 of 13/08/2018 on Immigration and Emigration.
The law stipulates that “any person who cross or attempts to cross through unauthorized place, upon conviction, he/she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than thirty (30) days and not more than six (6) months or a fine of not less than Rwf500,000 and not more than Rwf1 million.
Dushimirimana is expected to appear before court in the next few days.
