ASI Deep insight :“We welcome Ms. Victoire Ingabire’s release from prison detention, but it is far from all that is required: while there remains only one political party RPF and two fake opponents without viable opposition, and until we see no freedom of speech, nor democracy but daily arbitrary arrests and killings and until free and fair elections are held, the international community must continue to see this Kagame’s government for what it is – a bloody dictatorship.”
Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country, and to leave the country and return to it.
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Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza was detained in 2010. In 2013, her initial eight-year sentence was increased to 15 years. And, according to Rwandan and foreign media, President Paul Kagame granted mercy to Ingabire on September 14, 2018. But like everything else in Rwanda, surface appearances hide realities. Ingabire is essentially still a prisoner in a different form.
- Regime claimed that Ingabire had to beg for mercy in writing. As the Presidential Order puts it, the beneficiary of the presidential mercy, herself, requests for the lifting of the imprisonment conditions. ”She addresses a written reasoned request to the President of the Republic.”
- Upon receiving mercy from Kagame, Ingabire had ”to report to the Primary Level Prosecutor of her place of residence, at the prosecution office and notify the Prosecutor of the Village, Cell, Sector and District of her residence, within fifteen days.”
- Further, Ingabire has to ”appear before the Primary Level Prosecutor of her place of residence, at the prosecution office, once a month, on a day determined by the Primary Level Prosecutor.”
- Ingabire cannot freely travel outside Rwanda. In order to do so, she ”shall seek authorization from the Minister in charge of justice every time she wishes to go out of the country.
