Nyarugenge Intermediate Court has postponed the corruption case against Former State Minister in the Ministry of Youth and Culture, Edouard Bamporiki, over absence of his lawyer.
Bamporiki was in court room on Friday morning, asked by the judge if he is ready for the hearing, he said ” No.”
The controversial public figure says ” He has no access to lawyer for the there is election amongst themselves across the country.”
The prosecution agreed with him declaring he has a right to access to lawyer.
The case hearing is slatted on September 21, 2022.
President Paul Kagame suspended Bamporiki on May 5 in what was then communicated as “owing to matters of accountability under investigation.”
“Since May 5, Edouard Bamporiki, who was under investigation on the crime of soliciting, accepting or offering illegal benefit, his case file was sent to prosecution on July 7 this year. He is accused of soliciting, accepting or offering illegal benefit, a crime provided for and punishable by article 04 of the law on fighting against corruption,” said RIB Spokesperson Dr Murangira Thierry
The mentioned article provides that any person who solicits, accepts or receives, by any means, an illegal benefit for himself or another person or accepts a promise in order to render or omit a service under his mandate or uses his position to render or omit a service commits an offence.
On the punitive measures, the law states that upon conviction, he is liable to imprisonment for a term of more than five years but not more than seven years with a fine of three to five times the value of the illegal benefit solicited received.
Penalties mentioned, according to the law, “apply to a person who offers or promises to offer a benefit, by any means, an illegal benefit for him/ herself or another person to have a service rendered or omitted.”
It adds in part that if acts “are committed in order to perform an act contrary to law, the penalty is imprisonment for a term of more than seven years and not more than ten years with a fine of three to five times the value in Rwandan francs of the illegal benefit received or offered.”
The last part of the article makes reference to the first part of the article, implies that the punishment goes up for anyone in a public office from seven to ten years jail sentence which is the highest.
Following his suspension on May 5, Bamporiki went on Twitter and made an apology saying that he had indeed committed a crime of corruption and he pleaded with the president to forgive him.
