Rwanda’s Gilbert Iradukunda rejects the claims that say that he was ALLEN MICHAEL BECHKY’s employee, an American investor who accuses him of stealing his land.
On the 04 January 2023 the hearing of the case under which ALLEN MICHAEL BECHKY accuses Iradukunda to have grabbed his land got underway in Muhoza Primary Court based in Musanze district.
Mr Allen who was not present in the courtroom represented by his lawyer Maurice Munyentwari, while Iradukunda was present alongside with his lawyer, Rwamukwaya.
A Piece of land the two fight for is located in Nyonirima cell, Kinigi Sector in Musanze district; where ALLEN MICHAEL BECHKY possesses a hotel called Villa Gorilla.
Munyentwari told the court that in 2015 Allen gave $126,000 to Iradukunda whom he tasked to buy for him seven plots of land, but the later took one of them and registered it under his name.
He said that when Allen arrived in Rwanda decided to work together with Iradukunda who was experienced in hotels related business, before signing a contract that left the American set a hotel in Rwanda with the help of his former Rwandan friend.
At the time Allen brought the cash to invest, while Iradukunda promised him to make a profit into it.
In the contract the signed, the two men agreed that after five years Iradukunda would get 50% of the Hotel’s shares, as result of producing money he had been given.
The Contract had however a clause saying that Iradukunda would be a Villa Gorilla Hotel’s general manager, and that all the purchased properties would be registered under the Hotel’s name.
Munyentwari said that after buying the land, Iradukunda built the Villa Gorilla hotel in 2016 and constructed on the land he is currently disputing with his former boss.
As the fact that shows that Iradukunda knows well that the land he is fighting for does not belong to him, Maurice Munyentwari said that in 2019 Iradukunda himself declared on his Facebook Page that all the said land belongs to Villa Gorilla, before inviting the people worldwide to come and visit the place.
He said that Iradukunda decided to grab Allen’s land a year later.
Gilbert Iradukunda who is reportedly to have been dismissed in June 2021 due to poor hotel’s management, his boss asked him why he had decided to register under his name the land that he did not own, and responded that they would hand the matter in a friendly way.
Munyentwari said that in 2020 fiscal year Iradukunda himself did a tax declaration of the land he is fighting with ALLEN MICHAEL BECHKY, before paying the rental tax in the name of Villa Gorilla Hotel. For Munyentwari, this is one of the proof that shows that the land does not belong to Gilbert Iradukunda.
He asked the court to ask a defendant the motive under which he says that he owns the land he never paid the tax for, and where he had been during the construction period.
“Iradukunda registered the land under his name as a result of sorrow, after failing to get 50% of the Hotel’s shares he had been promised” according to Munyentwari.
He asked the court to rely on the provisions of 108th article of Investigate evidence act, and give justice to Allen.
The defendant’s lawyer told the court that his client never got fired by the American, since he was not his employee.
The severance point brought a lot of controversy in the courtroom, with the defendant arguing to have never signed any employment contract with Allen Michael Becky.
Rwamukwaya told the court that the contract his client has signed with Allen does not prevent him from buying his own properties.
He asked the plaintiffs to show in $126,000 Iradukunda had been given, where he was either asked to buy any size of the land or where it was supposed to be located.
He also said that the plot of land his client accused of stealing being close to Villa Gorilla Hotel should not be a problem, before asking whether there is any expertise done to show if there is any amount of money Iradukunda wasted before attacking his property.
Rwamukwaya also emphasized that Iradukunda was not Allen’s employee, but “a partner who could not steal his own property.”
He said that whenever Iradukunda Gilbert bought a piece of land Allen used to immediately take its certificate, a reason why he asked why the American did not take the other one.
The judge asked Rwamukwaya ‘why Allen took those documents while Gilbert Iradukunda during his defense said that he did not know the whereabouts of him’, the lawyer then replies that he left later.
He said that the claims that Iradukunda grabbed the land of Allen Michael Bechky are ” fraud of white men who currently own the Villa Gorilla Hotel” since Allen is no longer in Rwanda.
Among the alleged ones there’s an American woman namely Liza.
The judge asked Munyentwari who the said Liza is, and replies that she is Villa Gorilla Hotel’s new director since the hotel turned into a company.
Rwamukwaya on another hand said that his client never get dismissed, but chose to free the hotel after realizing that it had fallen under the control of strangers.
During the trial, the two sides talked about a hand-drawn map of Villa Gorilla Hotel Mr. Gilbert Iradukunda recognized to be the one who drew it.
Iradukunda told the court that a plot of land he is disputing with Allen bought it himself using a credit that American investor had given him, with the aim of developing where Villa Gorilla Hotel located.
His lawyer was asked what would happen the time Villa Gorilla Hotel owners would build a fence and live the said land inside the hotel, then he replied that the land was not inside the hotel before arrival of ‘the whites’ who decided to encircle it just to easily steal it.
Iradukunda said that the fact that his land is surrounded by hotel buildings does not mean that it belongs to him.
Asked to show the purchasing contract of the land he says to own, Iradukunda told the court that all the documents he had possessed were taken “the time the whites ransacked the hotel office in order to conceal the evidence.”
He said he bought the land in conflicts in 2018, prompting Allen Becky’s lawyer to ask if he had bought the land with the Villa Gorilla Hotel’s activities on it.
It was after showing the court that the defendant had been posting on his social media accounts (Facebook) photos of the Villa Gorilla Hotel with the disputed land inside it.
He asked the court to examine the photos.
Munyentwari made it clear to the court that on 08 April 2021, Allen asked Gilbert Iradukunda to show him the land he had bought for Villa Gorilla Hotel, then the later drew a map that he recognized before sending it to him via Whatsapp.
As the hearing was going on, Iradukunda became frustrated prompting the judge to calm him down.
The young man argued that having paid the land tax should not be a problem, since he was allowed to use a credit he had given whatever he wants.
Munyentwari told the court that another proof showing that the land is Allen’s, is a fire pit that Iradukunda built on it in 2016.
The defendant who was mostly characterized by self-contradiction replied that he built the said fire pit after buying that land, but said that he does not not remember the exact time he built it.
The court ruling will be read on 30th January 2023.
