Jean Bosco Harerimana, former RCA boss
The prosecution has appealed a court decision to grant bail to Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) officials who were arrested and detained on charges of mismanagement and misuse of public resources as well as influence peddling, nepotism and intimidation.
Professor Jean-Bosco Harelimana, the former RCA Director General was detained alongside his co-accused officials at RCA including Claver Hakizimana, the former procurement officer and Liliane Gahongayire, a former logistics officer.
The trio were arrested in September following an investigation in the case of mismanagement and misuse of public resources which were committed during his tenure as indicated in the Auditor General’s 2021/22 report.
The suspects were this november 4, 2023 released on bail following the Nyarugenge Primary court deciding that there are strong grounds to believe that Prof. Halareimana and his co-accused could be liable to respond to the charges they face and no strong reason to keep them in custody, mainly because investigations have been concluded.
The presiding judge however said that there is strong reason to believe that there was conspiracy to commit or aid crimes that could have cost the taxpayers money, the details of which will be delved into during the substantive trial.
Prosecution submitted an appeal to the above decision and during a hearing held at the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court on November 6, the prosecution said there were several reasons for the appeal and thus urged the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court to remand all the suspects pending further investigation.
These include the lower court allegedly disregarded some of the evidence they had submitted and prematurely concluded that their investigation was complete, among others.
Prosecution said that in the case of Harelimana, the primary court ignored an audio recording they had been submitted as evidence, of which the court stated that the voices were illegally solicited.
On the case of of Hakizimana, the prosecution stated that the lower court had overlooked evidence that could link him to the two crimes and in the case of Gahongayire prosecution insisted that her signature on the delivery note for items she did not receive had caused losses to RCA and that the lower court dismissing her as a suspect was incorrect.
The prosecution bail appeal decision will be read this Thursday, November 9, 2023.
