Free Phocas Ndayizera

Phocas Ndayizera, a freelance journalist who contributed to the BBC's Kinyarwanda and Kirundi services, has been imprisoned in Rwanda since 21 November 2018, when the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) arrested him in Kigali. A RIB spokesperson told a press conference that he had been arrested while receiving explosives, including dynamite, and was linked with terrorist groups.

A trial built on a confession he disowned

When his trial began in November 2019, prosecutors accused Ndayizera of planning terrorist attacks on water and power installations in Rwanda, as reported by the BBC. He was charged alongside around a dozen co-defendants.

At a bail hearing in 2018, Ndayizera pleaded guilty. Yet during the trial in 2020, he and his co-accused changed their pleas to not guilty, telling the court they had signed earlier confessions under torture. His attorney said Ndayizera was initially questioned about his journalism, but that case was never presented in court. A co-defendant, Eliaquam Karangwa, said the RIB promised him freedom if he implicated Ndayizera.

Ten years for a journalist

On 6 May 2021, Rwanda's High Court Chamber for International Crimes and Terrorism convicted eight defendants, including Ndayizera, of conspiring to carry out terror acts and illegal use of explosives, and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment. Other defendants were acquitted and released, and all were acquitted of plotting to attack Rwanda's government.

What we demand

• The immediate and unconditional release of Phocas Ndayizera;
• An independent investigation into the alleged torture used to extract confessions in his case;
• An end to the use of terrorism charges to silence journalists in Rwanda.

Ndayizera has spent years behind bars while the alleged case about his journalism never reached the courtroom. His conviction shows how Rwanda punishes independent reporting. Free Phocas Ndayizera now.