Rwandan Blogger Dr Joseph Nkusi: Arrested, Jailed and Still Waiting for Norway

The Global Campaign for Rwandans' Human Rights (GCRHR) issues this statement on the arrest and continued imprisonment of Dr Joseph Nkusi, a Rwandan blogger and government critic who was deported from Norway in 2016 and has been behind bars in Rwanda ever since.

Who is Dr Joseph Nkusi

Dr Joseph Nkusi is a Rwandan citizen who came to Norway in 2009 as a researcher at the University of Bergen. He is a blogger who has sharply criticised Rwanda's government and ruling party, founded an opposition group while in exile, and published writings that include claims about the 1994 genocide that are unfounded and deeply offensive to survivors, including assertions of a so called double genocide.

We reject those claims. They are contrary to the findings of independent researchers and cause further pain to survivors. Nothing in this statement defends genocide denial or incitement.

But criticism of a government, however unwelcome or however poorly argued, is not the same offence as genocide ideology. A justice system that cannot tell the two apart is not protecting memory. It is silencing dissent.

The deportation and arrest

Dr Nkusi lived in Norway between 2009 and 2016. When his work visa was due to expire he applied for protection. He received negative decisions first from the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) and then from the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE). UNE concluded that he had not shown a well founded fear of persecution.

He was deported and arrived back in Kigali on 8 October 2016. Rwandan authorities arrested him immediately on arrival. He was questioned about his writings and his political activities and was held at Kimironko prison from that day.

He was subsequently tried in Kigali on charges of genocide ideology, sectarianism and inciting insurrection or trouble amongst the population. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Why the case matters

Rwandan law defines genocide ideology as a deliberate, public act that characterises a person by ethnic, religious, national or racial nature, with the aim of advocating for, or supporting, the commission of genocide. The legal framework has improved in recent years, but it retains language broad enough to criminalise speech.

Human Rights Watch and other monitors have observed a pattern of trials in which genocide ideology and inciting insurrection charges were used against people whose real offence was criticising the government. Fair trial standards were flouted in many of these sensitive political cases, even after reforms to the justice system.

His trial was an opportunity for Rwanda to demonstrate a clear distinction between genocide ideology as a criminal offence and the free expression of political opinion. That opportunity was not taken.

Our demands

GCRHR calls on the Government of Rwanda to:

• Release Dr Joseph Nkusi and allow him to leave the country for resettlement in Norway, in line with the protection decision already issued there.
• Ensure that he receives a fair hearing in any remaining judicial process, and that he is not prosecuted or convicted for criticism of the government or the ruling party.
• Guarantee his safety while he remains in custody, and allow him access to his family, his lawyers and consular representatives.
• Review the use of genocide ideology and inciting insurrection charges in cases that rest on political speech alone.

GCRHR calls on the Government of Norway to:

• Act on its own appeal decision and press for Dr Nkusi's release so that the protection granted to him can take effect.
• Raise his case at the highest diplomatic level with the Rwandan authorities, and treat his continued detention as an obstacle to the bilateral relationship.
• Publicly acknowledge the consequences of the 2016 deportation and set out how it will prevent similar returns in future.

GCRHR calls on international partners and human rights mechanisms to monitor his situation and to seek clarification from the Rwandan authorities on his legal status and conditions of detention.

Conclusion

Dr Joseph Nkusi is a man whose views many will find objectionable, including us. He should be answerable for words that cross into incitement, and only for those words, after a trial that meets international standards.

He should not be held in a Rwandan prison because Norway returned him by mistake and has not yet found a way to bring him home.

Norway has admitted the error. It now has a duty to finish what that admission requires. Dr Nkusi should be released and resettled in the country that has recognised its responsibility towards him.

His family and his lawyers deserve to know where his case stands, and he deserves to know when he will be free.

Update, October 2018: Norway's recognition

In October 2018, two years after Dr Nkusi was forced back to Rwanda and after learning that he had been sentenced to ten years, UNE reconsidered his case and granted him protection in Norway.

In other words, the Norwegian state has recognised a serious mistake: its failure to comply with its obligations under the Refugee Convention when it returned a man to a country where he was then prosecuted for his writing.

That recognition is welcome. It is also incomplete. A protection decision means nothing to a man inside a Rwandan prison.