Free the Nine Activists Arrested for Reading a Book

The Crime: Reading a Book

On 13 October 2021, on the eve of Ingabire Day, Rwandan police began arresting a group of activists. Their alleged crime was reading a book. The book was "Blueprint for Revolution" by the Serbian author Srdja Popovic, a manual of nonviolent resistance that advocates protests, boycotts and peaceful civic mobilisation. It contains no incitement to violence. It is on sale in bookshops around the world. In Rwanda, possessing and discussing it was treated as a conspiracy against the state.

The nine are:

• Theoneste Nsengimana, a journalist and director of the online channel Umubavu TV
• Sylvain Sibomana, secretary general of the DALFA-Umurinzi party
• Alexis Rucubanganya
• Hamad Hagenimana
• Jean-Claude Ndayishimiye
• Alphonse Mutabazi
• Marcel Nahimana
• Emmanuel Masengesho
• Claudine Uwimana

Eight of them are members of the DALFA-Umurinzi opposition party, led by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. A further party member, Joyeuse Uwatuje, has been prosecuted alongside them. Theoneste Nsengimana is a journalist who had announced that he planned to cover the Ingabire Day events.

A Travesty of Justice

The nine were charged with forming or joining a criminal association, conspiracy against the ruling power, and conspiracy to cause uprisings and unrest among the population. The prosecution has sought sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment. They were held in pre-trial detention for more than three years before their trial even began, in flagrant violation of Rwanda's own laws, which limit pre-trial detention to months, not years.

In August 2024, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention examined their case and reached an unequivocal conclusion: their detention is arbitrary and in violation of international law. The UN found that they were detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and participation in public affairs. It condemned their delayed access to lawyers, their detention alongside convicted prisoners, and their unreasonably prolonged pre-trial detention. It called for their immediate release, compensation, and an independent investigation into their detention.

The Rwandan government has ignored that call. Amnesty International has described the trial as a travesty of justice. Human Rights Watch has called the charges trumped up. The message of this case is meant to be clear: in today's Rwanda, even reading the wrong book is treated as a crime against the state.

Our Demands

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights demands:

• The immediate and unconditional release of the nine detained for reading a book and for peacefully exercising their rights.
• That the Rwandan government implement the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, including compensation and an independent investigation into their detention.
• An end to the criminalisation of peaceful dissent, and the release of all prisoners of conscience in Rwanda.

Reading a book is not a crime. Silence will not free them. Their names are Theoneste Nsengimana, Sylvain Sibomana, Alexis Rucubanganya, Hamad Hagenimana, Jean-Claude Ndayishimiye, Alphonse Mutabazi, Marcel Nahimana, Emmanuel Masengesho and Claudine Uwimana. Raise your voice for them.