Rwandan opposition leader arrested over alleged plot against authorities

KIGALI, Rwanda — A prominent opposition leader in Rwanda has been arrested on charges she assisted an alleged plot to incite public unrest.

Victoire Ingabire was arrested on Thursday and is being detained in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Her team of international lawyers in a statement called her arrest ''baseless and politically motivated.''

The Rwanda Investigations Bureau links Ingabire to alleged subversion after her name was mentioned in an ongoing criminal case against nine people accused of plotting to overthrow the government of President Paul Kagame.

The Rwanda Investigations Bureau said it was probing her alleged role in creating a criminal gang.

Ingabire appeared in court Thursday to be questioned by prosecutors who charged that she had been communicating with the nine suspects. Among the suspects is a journalist named Theoneste Nsengimana. The rest are members of the DALFA-Umurinzi group, a party led by Ingabire that is not recognized by authorities.

Ingabire previously led the FDU-Inkingi group, a coalition of opposition parties that also was never permitted to register with the government.

Ingabire spent 16 years in exile in the Netherlands and returned to Rwanda to launch an opposition political movement in 2010 but was imprisoned before she could contest the presidential election.

She was later found guilty of conspiracy to undermine the government and denying Rwanda's 1994 genocide, charges she denied.

Sentenced to 15 years, she was freed in 2018 after obtaining presidential pardon.

But Kagame has since threatened Ingabire with a possible return to jail. In 2020 the president said that Ingabire should not be shocked if she is locked up again.

Her lawyers say she has committed no crimes.

''This re-arrest is simply the latest step in an ongoing campaign of harassment and intimidation which the Rwandan government has been carrying out'' against Ingabire, the statement from her lawyers said.

Three decades after a genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwanda's president has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery.

But Kagame has faced criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition. He denies the accusations. ____

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