Aimable Karasira will face additional charges.
Nyarugenge Primary Court on Wednesday postponed the trial of controversial former university lecturer-turned YouTuber, who appeared for the first time in court since his arrest.
Aimable Uzaramba Karasira, was arrested by Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) on May 31, and charged with criminal counts of denial and legitimize the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi, instigating divisions done on YouTube and ‘illicit enrichment’.
The latter charge was recently added to his package after law enforcement discovered that Karasira was in possession of money, whose source could not be explained.
RIB found $10,981, some €520, Rwf3, 142,000 in his house and Rwf11million in Mobile Money, but there were many other accounts in various banks with exorbitant amounts of money that were not disclosed for investigative purposes.
Karasira, who was sacked by University of Rwanda (UR) in August last year for what the university described as a “concurrence of disciplinary faults” and “insubordination” has since his arrest claimed to have an unstable mental condition.
Based on this supposition, Karasira and his lawyers informed court that their client had taken a mental health medical examination and he thus cannot stand trial until the results are provided as evidence to prove him innocent in court.
Karasira, who suffered and survived COVID19 at the time of his detention said that he has been undergoing mental health treatment since 2003 while he was a lecturer and has been receiving special medical attention.
In response, Prosecution told court that they were willing to wait for the medical results from the Kigali Teaching University Hospital (CHUK) to proceed with the in-substance case hearing.
Nyarugenge judges said the next date of appearance in court will be on July 23, 2021 when all the anticipated evidence is expected to be in court.
If the medical report doesn’t prove his actions and comments as made under an unstable mental condition or motivation, Karasira will have to battle the charges which could send him away for a long time.
Illicit enrichment is punishable by Article 9 of the Anti-Corruption Law and carries a sentence of not less than 7 years but not more than 10 years with a fine of 3 to 5 times the value of the property the legal source of which s/he is not able to justify.
On the crime of genocide ideology and related crimes, article 5 oflaw no.59/2018 of 22/8/2018 states that anyone found guilty genocide denial by stating or indicating that the genocide was not planned; commits an offence.
Upon conviction, s/he is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than 5 years and not more than 7 years, with a fine of not less than Rwf500, 000 and not more than Rwf1million.
