Sunday, June 22, 2025

Lawyers decry arrest of Rwandan opponent Ingabire as 'unlawful and arbitrary'

Lawyers for Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire say she is being targeted by a biased justice system after her arrest on Thursday evening, claiming there is no evidence linking her to an alleged plot to incite public unrest.

Issued on: 21/06/2025 -

Victoire Ingabire returned from exile to run for president in 2010, however she was arrested, charged with terrorism and treason and sentenced to 10 years in jail. This file picture from April 7, 2010, shows the Rwanda opposition leader at her home in Kigali. AFP/File

By:Melissa Chemam

“We are gravely concerned by this unlawful and arbitrary re-arrest, and the ongoing pattern of political intimidation of our client Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza," her team of international lawyers said in a statement Friday.

"There is, again, no lawful basis for her arrest and detention and we call for her immediate release.”

Ingabire was arrested on Thursday and is being detained in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

The Rwanda Investigations Bureau (RBI) links Ingabire to alleged subversion after her name was mentioned in an ongoing criminal case against nine people accused of plotting to remove President Paul Kagame's government without using military force.

She appeared in court on Thursday to be questioned by prosecutors who charged that she had been communicating with the nine suspects.

Prosecutors also allege Ingabire has provided financial support and training to teach them how to overthrow the government without using weapons.

Her lawyers said that she appeared in court on Thursday to deny the accusations.

Following the hearing at the High Court, judges said they were not satisfied with Ingabire’s answers and ordered the RIB to launch an investigation, the court said in a statement.

The judges gave prosecution lawyers two weeks to return to court with formal charges against her.

Dissent on trial

"The reason why these nine people are on trial at the moment is because in October 2021, nine members of Madame Ingabire's political party took part in an online training presented by a European NGO called the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies," Iain Edwards, one of her lawyers from 1MCB Chambers in London, told RFI.

"This trial has been dragging on for months and months," he added.

Edwards said that during the hearing one of the accused was asked specific questions about Ingabire.

"The accused was saying she's not behind it at all. It's got nothing to do with her. The judge didn't pay any attention to his protestations, turned to the prosecution and said: 'Well, we've been hearing all about Victoire Ingabire. Why was she not charged?'

"But there's nothing to charge her with," said Edwards.

Some of the defendants are also accused of planning to attend "Ingabire Day", which her supporters hold every year in October to commemorate her imprisonment in 2012 and release six years later.

Journalist ‪Michela Wrong‬, author of several books on Rwanda, said Ingabire's arrest suggests the regime is seriously rattled.

"If the arrest of opposition leader Victoire Ingabire is meant to show strength, it does the opposite," she wrote on social media platform Bluesky.

"With rumours swirling about Paul Kagame's health and the regime under intense US pressure to sign a peace deal with the DRC, the Rwandan regime feels beleaguered," Wrong added.

Rwandan opposition leader asks court to restore her civic rights

One of Rwanda's rare opponents

Ingabire, 56, left Rwanda in March 1994 to study and live in the Netherlands, where she founded the DALFA-Umurinzi party in 2006. The party, led by Ingabire, is not recognised by the Rwandan authorities.

She returned to Rwanda in January 2010 to participate in the presidential elections scheduled to take place later that year.

Instead, she was arrested and faced an array of charges including active participation in a criminal organisation.

She was jailed in 2012 for 15 years but Kagame pardoned her in 2018.

Rwandan politician Victoire Ingabire and lawyer Gatera Gashabana at the Mageragere Prison in Kigali, Rwanda, when she was release, on 15 September 2018. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana

Late last year, Ingabire's lawyers living outside Rwanda said they were concerned for her safety after comments Kagame reportedly made on 16 November 2024.

"Their days are numbered," the Rwandan leader said, referring to people who were pardoned and released from prison but who repeat the same crimes.

“Those who must be corrected, we correct them,” he said, speaking to party faithful at the Unity Club in Kigali.

Ingabire's legal team say the remarks echo public statements Kagame made in July 2024, where he said Ingabire “will not end up well”, and that the Rwandan government “would find an appropriate solution” for her. He has publicly described her as a “small woman of a genocidaire” and ridiculed her for viewing herself as a political opponent.

Judiciary 'subject to pressure'

"It is well established that the judiciary in Rwanda is not independent," said Edwards. "It is absolutely subject to pressure from the Rwandan government, especially in these big political cases."

He says Ingabire risks imprisonment for crimes she has not been involved with.

Last July, Kagame tightened his 25-year grip on power when he was re-elected after securing 99 percent of the vote.

Though he has been praised for the way he helped transform Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, his reputation has been tarnished by repeated accusations of rights abuses and supporting M23 rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

65 years on, Belgium edges closer to trial over Lumumba’s assassination

Sixty-five years after the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, a key figure in the Congolese independence movement, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office hopes that a trial may finally take place – possibly in 2026 – as part of the investigation into “war crimes” opened in Belgium, the former colonial power.

Issued on: 22/06/2025 -

Patrice Lumumba in 1960. © AFP

By:RFI

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office announced during the week that it had requested the referral of former Belgian diplomat Étienne Davignon to the Brussels criminal court, as part of the investigation into the 1961 assassination of former prime minister Patrice Lumumba.

Aged 92, Étienne Davignon is the only person still alive among the ten suspects named in the 2011 war crimes complaint filed by Lumumba’s children.

The referral to trial is requested notably for the “illegal detention and transfer” of Lumumba at the time he was taken prisoner, and for “humiliating and degrading treatment”, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, Ann Lukowiak, told French news agency AFP.

An 'intent to kill' charge has not been retained - a dismissal is sought on that aspect, she added.

Last remains of Congolese independence hero Lumumba to return home

The arrest and death of Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the former Belgian Congo, after it became independent on 30 June 1960, but he was overthrown in mid-September 1960 by a coup d’état.

He was executed on 17 January 1961 along with two comrades by separatists from the Katanga region, in the south of what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the support of Belgian mercenaries. He was 35 years old. His body, which was dissolved in acid, has never been found.

In 2011, on behalf of the children, eldest son François Lumumba filed a complaint in Brussels, accusing various Belgian administrations of having taken part in “a vast conspiracy aimed at the political and physical elimination” of the Congolese leader.

The investigation is now complete, and the prosecutor’s indictment targets the only living individual among the ten initially named in the complaint - former officials, police officers or Belgian intelligence agents.

Étienne Davignon was at the time of Congo’s independence a diplomatic trainee at the foreign affairsm ministry. He is suspected of having been present when a plan to arrest Lumumba was discussed. He has always denied Belgian authorities’ involvement in the crime.

He had joined the foreign affairs ministry in 1959, attended as an observer the round table bringing together Belgian and Congolese leaders in Brussels in early 1960, an event he later described as “a decisive turning point” in his career".

Hearing scheduled

Following the indictment, it will be up to an investigating chamber to decide whether to proceed to trial. A hearing for pleadings, allowing the defence to present its arguments, has been scheduled for 20 January 2026.

“We are moving in the right direction; what we are seeking above all is the truth,” said Juliana Lumumba, the daughter of the former Congolese prime minister, in an interview with RTBF.

Christophe Marchand, lawyer for the Lumumba children says, “[Davignon] was aware of the plan to eliminate the former prime minister, and he participated actively despite what he says.”

After his diplomatic career, Davignon notably served as vice-president of the European Commission from 1981 to 1985, responsible for industry, during a period marked by the decline of European steelmaking. He also had a business career, as former head of the holding company Société Générale de Belgique.

As part of this investigation in Belgium, investigators seized a tooth of Patrice Lumumba in 2016, which was returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo in a coffin in June 2022 during an official ceremony in Brussels.

Remains of independence hero Patrice Lumumba returned to Congo

The then Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, reiterated the “apologies” already made by the Belgian government in 2002 for its “moral responsibility” in the disappearance.

Reflecting on the conditions of this “terrible” assassination, De Croo pointed to Belgian officials who at the time “chose not to see” and “not to act.”

(with AFP)

DR Congo extends cobalt export ban by three months

DRC produces an estimated 70% of the world's cobalt and most of it comes from the city of Kolwezi, where the Shabara artisanal mine (photo) is situated.

AFP - JUNIOR KANNAH

The Democratic Republic of Congo has extended by three months a ban on exports of cobalt in a bid to curb oversupply of the electric vehicle battery material, the country's regulatory agency has said.

Issued on: 22/06/2025 -

By:RFI

DR Congo, the world's top cobalt supplier, imposed a four-month suspension on exports in February after prices had hit a nine-year low at just $10 a pound. The ban was due to expire on Sunday.

"The decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension due to the continued high level of stock on the market," the Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substances' Markets (ARECOMS) said in a statement Saturday.

ARECOMS said it expected to announce a subsequent decision to either modify, extend or terminate the suspension before the new three-month window closes in September.

The Democratic Republic of Congo produces over 70 percent of the global supply of cobalt. The metal is a critical component of batteries and seen as key to the renewable energy transition.

Cobalt hydroxide produced at Tenke Fungurume Mine – one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world, in southeastern DRC. AFP - EMMET LIVINGSTONE

UN panel seeks to stem mining abuses in global rush for critical minerals

Mining companies divided

The price of cobalt has dropped due to a big rise in production and a drop in demand for cobalt in electric vehicle batteries.

Congolese authorities had been considering extending the ban as they explore how to distribute quotas for shipments of cobalt among mining companies.

A proposal to implement quotas has backing from miners including Glencore, the world's second-largest cobalt-producing company. But Glencore's position differs from that of the number one producer, China's CMOC Group, which has lobbied for the ban to be lifted.

Eurasian Resources Group, another key producer in Congo, also wants the ban lifted.

DRC mineral contract with China slammed by NGOs citing 'major losses'

The government is not fully united on extending the ban, according to Zack Hartwanger at Swiss-based commodity trader Open Mineral.

"Some [in government] raised concerns about revenues, employment, and informal supply chains," Hartwanger said. "There’s tension between industrial policy goals and economic realities."

(with Reuters)

EU Commission moves to withdraw greenwashing proposal in another blow to Green Deal

By Gerardo Fortuna
Published on 20/06/2025 -

In a surprise decision, the European Commission has announced it's withdrawing another key component of the once-flagship Green Deal policy, despite the legislation being close to final approval.

The European Commission intends to withdraw a proposal aimed at combating so-called "greenwashing" by ensuring companies' environmental claims are accurate, substantiated and independently verified, an EU executive spokesperson told reporters today.

The proposal on Green Claims was initially presented in March 2023 as part of the broader European Green Deal legislative framework.

This move marks the latest in a series of rollbacks of major Green Deal initiatives, after so-called "Omnibus" papers intended to simplify EU legislation effectively narrowed the scope of measures such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

The announcement on the Green Claims Directive came ahead of a final meeting between the Polish EU Council presidency and MEPs scheduled next Monday, which was expected to give the proposal the green light ahead of formal adoption.

Its withdrawal at this late stage has taken many by surprise, including the negotiators. When questioned by reporters, Commission officials declined to provide detailed reasons for the decision, saying only that more information would follow.

According to parliamentary sources close to the file, chief negotiators socialist MEP Delara Burkhardt and liberal MEP Sandro Gozi still intended to proceed with the trilogue negotiations on Monday, noting that the talks were nearing a successful conclusion.

“It is unacceptable that the Commission blatantly interferes with the progress made by co-legislators on this file,” a member of the Parliament’s negotiating team told Euronews, expressing frustration at what they see as a unilateral and premature move.

Likewise, Poland's presidency of the EU Council “is ready to enter constructively into the trilogue and go ahead as planned until there is a clear decision from the Commission [on the withdrawal],” a Polish spokesperson tol Euronews.

It remains unclear whether the decision to withdraw the proposal has been formally adopted by the Commission’s College, the weekly meeting of the 26 Commissioners and EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

Beyond the immediate legislative impact, the move raises broader questions about the Commission's authority to retract its own proposals.

While EU treaties do not explicitly grant this power, a 2015 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union affirmed that the Commission may withdraw proposals as part of its right of initiative.

However, the Court also made clear that this power is limited and subject to both substantive and procedural constraints.

The ruling emphasised that withdrawal should only occur in justified cases, such as institutional deadlock or the proposal becoming obsolete.

Neither condition appears to apply in the case of the Green Claims Directive, prompting concerns that the Commission could be overstepping its role and upsetting the institutional balance by exercising a de facto veto over the legislative process.

Belarus opposition leader Tikhanovsky freed after US-brokered pardon

Sergey Tikhanovsky was released from prison following a US-brokered pardon after envoy Keith Kellogg met with President Lukashenko in Minsk. / bne IntelliNews

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By Leon Aris in Berlin June 21, 2025
Belarusian opposition activist Sergey Tikhanovsky (Siarhei Tsikhanovsky) was released from prison on 21 June 2025 following a pardon mediated by U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg, who recently met with President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.
“I can't believe it. Siarhei is here—with me and our children. What we’ve dreamed of for 5 years has finally happened,” his wife Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Sviatlana Tsikhanovskaya) said in a post on social media. “Tonight, I’m taking the evening off to talk with my husband, to let him see his children again, after so many years. Thank you all for the tremendous support!”
Tikhanovsky was held in several high-security detention centres in Belarus during his imprisonment, including the notorious Okrestina Detention Centre in Minsk that still holds numerous opposition activists arrested during protests. Tikhanovsky, 46, had been imprisoned for more than five years.
The announcement of the releases came just hours after Lukashenko met US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Minsk, the highest profile visit of a US official to the authoritarian state in years.
Tikhanovsky immediately travelled to Lithuania where he was delivered from the airport to emerged from a white mini bus throw himself into the arms of his waiting wife. (video)
Belarus has faced international condemnation since the 2020 mass demonstrations following the blatant falsification of the presidential election that returned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to his seventh term of office. The election was widely viewed as fraudulent and sparked mass protests across the country.
Lukashenko responded with a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing opposition figures, activists, and journalists. Among those detained was Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger and activist who had planned to challenge Lukashenko at the ballot box before being arrested in May 2020 ahead of the elections.
Tikhanovsky, who was serving an 18-year sentence after his 2020 arrest for political dissent, arrived in Lithuania on Saturday June 21 along with 13 other released political prisoners.
After her husband was jailed, his wife Tikhanovskaya ran in his stead. Initially, Lukashenko dismissed her challenge as that of a “mere housewife” but as the large crowds rallied to her banner, he became increasingly embattled.
While the Central Election Committee (CEC) immediately burnt all the ballots after declaring Lukashenko the winner, the few rebel polling station that release the real result of the election suggest that Tikhanovskaya won the election in a landslide.
However, after the poll she went to a meeting at the CEC a few days later to lodge a formal complaint and demand a recount where she was confronted by Belarus’ KGB agents. Tikhanovskaya was forced into making a statement calling on Belarusians to accept the official results making Lukashenko the victor and called for an end to the protests. But then she immediately fled into exile with her two small children in Lithuania, where she resumed her campaign to oust Lukashenko, appealing to the international community for help.
“My husband Siarhei is free! It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” Tikhanovskaya wrote. “We’re not done. 1,150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released.”
While the release marks a rare concession from the Belarusian government, the broader political crackdown remains in place. Rights groups continue to call for the release of all remaining political detainees.
Other prominent opposition leaders remain in jail
Other opposition leaders included in the release were Natalia Dulina, a former university professor, and Ihar Kamel, a journalist working for RFE/RL. Swedish-Belarusian citizen Galina Krasnyanskaya, arrested in 2023 for allegedly supporting Ukraine, was also freed, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said.
The other released prisoners include five Belarusian nationals and Japanese, Polish and Swedish citizens, according to Tikhanovskaya's office.
Tikhankovsky’s release was welcomed with applause from the international community. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed Tikhanovsky's release and called for Belarus to free its other political prisoners. "This is fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenko regime," she said on X.
However, the other top opposition leaders jailed both before the 2020 elections and during the protests afterward remain in jail.
Most prominent of those still in jail is former banker Viktor Babariko who also was intending to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 election and was on course to easily win the race until he was also arrested ahead of the poll.
Maria Kolesnikova also remains in jail, her sister confirmed. Formerly the campaign manager for Babariko, she joined forces with Tikhanovskaya, after his arrest and became a leading figure in the protest movement together with Veronika Tsepkalo, who also fled into exile. She was an easily identifiable figure at the street protests with her short cropped platinum blonde hair and trademark bright red lipstick.
While Tikhanovskaya fled into exile after she was threatened by the KGB, Kolesnikova chose to remain in Minsk and continue protesting in public against the Lukashenko regime until she was eventually snatched by security services from the street and jailed. She disappeared for almost two weeks before finally surfacing in a Belarusian prison and later charged with organising a coup d'état.
The authorities tried to forcibly expel her from the country in September, but failed after she ripped up her passport on the Ukrainian border, making it impossible for her to leave the country. After disappearing again she eventually resurfaced in another Minsk jail but has rarely been seen in public since.
Babariko has also not been seen for over two years, until he released a short video message to his daughter in January, published online by Roman Protasevich, another Belarusian opposition journalist that was snatched by the authorities after it forced a commercial Ryanair flight to land in Minsk on its way to Vilnius. Babariko has been held incommunicado since April 2022, with no access to visits, phone calls, or letters, according to human rights group Viasna.

Exclusive: Belarus releases political prisoners, including opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski

The Belarus president pardoned several prisoners on Saturday during the visit of US special envoy Keith Kellogg in a move to ease tensions with the West.

Belarus has released a group of political prisoners on Saturday, in a US-brokered deal with President Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Belarusian opposition sources told Euronews.
Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski is among the released.
In an exclusive statement to Euronews, Franak Viačorka, Chief of Staff to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, emphasised the diplomatic breakthrough "The visit of Trump's envoy Kellogg to Minsk maybe didn't bring any changes for Ukraine's peace talks, but it brought very concrete result: release political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski." Adding "Basically, it's a combination of pressure through sanctions and quiet, silent, diplomatic work".
Viačorka emphasised on the importance of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Siarhei Tsikhanouskaya reunion as "when they are together, this powerful couple, Siarhei and Sviatlana, they give, hope to Belarusian people, hope and energy to continue the fight." As well as "it raises attention to the topic of political prisoners again".
Lukashenka’s regime arrested him in 2020 as the then-Belarusian opposition presidential candidate and Lukashenka's direct opponent.
Siarhei Tsikhanouski speaks to people gathered to sign up and support potential presidential candidates in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, May 24, 2020.AP Photo
The surprise release was brokered by US envoy Keith Kellogg, a longtime advisor to US President Donald Trump, who travelled to Belarus earlier this week for talks with Lukashenka.
Since last year, Lukashenka has been regularly pardoning small numbers of imprisoned government critics in what analysts saw as a signal that Minsk was seeking to ease tensions with the West.
In the run-up to the January 2025 presidential elections, Lukashenka has pardoned prisoners convicted of extremism, claiming that it was a "humane gesture" toward those who had "gone astray".
Artist Ales Pushkin, who died in July while imprisoned in Belarus after authorities deprived him of medical care, waves a red-and-white flag symbolizes oppositionAP Photo
Kellogg, US special envoy for Russia’s war against Ukraine, has said privately that the trip to Minsk could help kickstart peace talks aimed at ending Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to two of the sources.
Earlier, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Euronews that Lukashenka "cannot be trusted” and Belarus is not a place for negotiations because Lukashenka "is part of this war".
Lukashenka is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has allowed him to stage part of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 from Belarus.
"He's a co-aggressor and he's serving Putin's interest, and he cannot be trusted at all," Tsikhanouskaya told Euronews.
She described Russia's war in Ukraine as a blessing for Lukashenka and that he did not want it to stop.
"(The government) is producing a huge amount of stuff for Russian army, and in this atmosphere of sanctions against Lukashenka's regime, it's a good source of income for him," she added.
Police officers detain Nina Bahinskaya, 73, during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020AP Photo

Who is Siarhei Tsikanouski?

Previously a popular blogger, Siarhei Tsikhanouski decided to run against Lukashenka in the 2020 presidential elections and was arrested in spring, long before the summer protests in Belarus.
Tsikhanouski was first given “administrative detention” which prevented him from filing his candidacy before the deadline. His wife Tsikhanouskaya filed her candidacy instead, emerging as a leading opposition candidate.
A Minsk court sentenced Tsikhanouski to 18 years in prison with the harshest possible conditions. He has not been allowed family visits and telephone calls. He has also not been allowed to meet with his lawyer confidentially, read, send letters, or receive letters and parcels.
In 2023 he was given a new sentence of 1.5 years in prison in addition to the 18-year sentence he was already serving on the charge of “disobedience to prison administration”.
Tsikhanouskaya had no contact with her husband since he was jailed. She previously told Euronews that she did not know if he was alive.
“My children write letters to him, but they get no response. They ask if their father is okay, if he is still alive—it’s an incredibly painful situation. My husband’s imprisonment is my personal pain, but my goal is to free all political prisoners,” the Belarusian opposition leader said in an earlier interview with Euronews.**
Lukashenka claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election deemed fraudulent by the EU and external observers, triggering mass protests.
They were violently crushed by police, with tens of thousands of peaceful protesters arrested, and countless detainees suffering torture and other ill-treatment.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya went into exile for fear of prosecution. Many of her close associates, including her closest companion during the election campaign, Maryia Kalesnikava, were jailed.

Worldwide reactions

EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the release as “fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka regime”.
Reactions from the US included deputy John Coale who praised US "President Trump’s strong leadership" and "the Lithuanian government for its cooperation and assistance".
According to the Belarusian human rights centre Vyasna, over 50,000 people have been detained on political grounds after mass protests broke out following Lukashenka's 2020 presidential election win, and at least 5,472 people have been convicted in politically-motivated criminal cases.
The United Nations estimates that around 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since then, with most going to Poland and Lithuania.
Even today, between 15 and 20 people are being detained in Belarus every day.
In 2023, Tsikhanouskaya was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment