Rwanda: 6 Months On, No Justice for Kizito Mihigo | WPN World People News

Rwandan authorities have not conducted a credible and transparent investigation into the suspicious death in police custody of Kizito Mihigo, a well-known singer. It is essential to carry out an effective, independent investigation with the involvement of foreign experts, including the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions.

Rwandan authorities reported that they found Mihigo dead in his cell on February 17, 2020 at Remera Police Station, claiming that he had “strangled himself” to death. Days before his arrest, though, Mihigo told Human Rights Watch that he was being threatened and asked to provide false testimony against political opponents and that he wanted to flee the country because he feared for his safety. Mihigo, a government critic previously prosecuted and imprisoned for four years, expressed concern that he faced a serious risk of being killed by state agents.

“The burden of proof is on the Rwandan government to demonstrate that Kizito Mihigo was not unlawfully killed in their custody, but six months later, the government has manifestly failed to do that,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of shedding light on the circumstances surrounding Mihigo’s death and prosecuting those responsible, the authorities have promoted a narrative about him being depressed and suicidal.”

The independent, external inquiry should not only examine Mihigo’s arrest and detention in February immediately before his death, but also the abusive politically motivated actions by the authorities against him in 2014 and 2015, and the authorities’ investigation into his death and their actions in its aftermath.

Mihigo was detained in Nyaruguru, near the border with Burundi, on February 13, 2020 with two other people. The Rwanda Investigation Bureau announced late in the afternoon of February 14 that Mihigo was in its custody, and said he was charged with attempting to illegally cross the border, joining “terrorist groups,” and corruption. The circumstances around his arrest and subsequent detention remain unclear.

Rwanda National Police reported that Mihigo died on February 17, allegedly by suicide, hours after they claim to have found his body in his cell at Remera Police Station. The same day, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau spokesperson, Marie-Michelle Umuhoza, told local media that Mihigo had “strangled himself” with his bedsheets and had displayed “unusual behavior” while in custody.

Mihigo was held incommunicado in an unknown location for nine days in April 2014, where he said he was beaten, threatened, and forced to confess to crimes with which he was later charged. In February 2015, the High Court in Kigali sentenced him to 10 years in prison for alleged offenses of forming a criminal gang, conspiracy to murder, and conspiracy against the established government or the president. He was released in September 2018 after a presidential pardon.

Mihigo made a recording on October 6, 2016, while serving his sentence at Nyarugenge Prison in Kigali, that he shared with Human Rights Watch at the time. In it he said that his prosecution was politically motivated and an effort to suppress a song he had released weeks before his arrest. In the song released on March 5, 2014, Mihigo – a genocide survivor – expressed compassion for victims of the genocide and of other crimes committed in its aftermath.

In the recording, Mihigo said he was forced to attend meetings with several high-level government officials, including President Paul Kagame’s cabinet director, Ines Mpambara, and the then-vice president of the Senate, Bernard Makuza, who he said told him that the president did not like his song and that he should “ask for forgiveness” or risk death.

In the recording, Mihigo also said that during his incommunicado detention, from April 6 to 15, 2014, he was beaten and interrogated in front of Dan Munyuza, the then-deputy police inspector general, who told him to plead guilty and “ask for forgiveness” or face a life sentence and death in prison. Munyuza is now the police inspector general.

As set out in the Revised United Nations Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions (the Minnesota Protocol), the state’s obligations to respect and protect the right to life mean that it is responsible for a death in custody, unless proven otherwise, particularly in cases “where the deceased was, prior to his or her death, a political opponent of the government or a human rights defender; was known to be suffering from mental health issues; or committed suicide in unexplained circumstances.”

On February 26, 2020, Rwanda’s National Public Prosecution Authority concluded that Mihigo’s death “resulted from suicide by hanging” and said it would not pursue criminal charges. The prosecution authority said that police officers on duty “did not hear any disturbance,” and that the autopsy report determined that he had died by “asphyxia/hypoxia, with hanging as the most probable cause.”

The results of the Rwanda Forensic Laboratory’s post-mortem examination were not made public. To establish that they are not responsible for Mihigo’s death, the Rwandan authorities should have allowed an independent body to carry out an impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation.

Human Rights Watch wrote to Justice Minister Johnston Busingye on August 10 to request information on investigations conducted into Mihigo’s allegations and his death in custody but has received no response.

Investigations and prosecutions are essential to deter future violations of the right to life and to promote accountability, justice, and the rule of law, and failure to respect the duty to investigate is a violation of the right to life, Human Rights Watch said.

The Minnesota Protocol also provides that in some circumstances, “states have a duty to cooperate internationally in investigations of potentially unlawful death, in particular when it concerns an alleged international crime such as extrajudicial execution.” Harriet Mathews, United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Africa Director, and Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary for the United States Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, have both called for independent investigations into Mihigo’s death.

Rwanda is set to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which will include discussions on governance and rule of law. The meeting, initially scheduled for June but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to bring together leaders of 53 Commonwealth countries in Kigali. The Commonwealth should ensure that an international investigation into Kizito Mihigo’s death is conducted ahead of the meeting, Human Rights Watch said.

“Kizito Mihigo made serious allegations of torture and other rights violations against high-level government officials who are still in key positions today,” Mudge said. “The allegations shine a light on Mihigo’s suspicious death in custody and should not be swept under the carpet.”

Source:Human Rights Watch