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Rashid Hakuzimana has been sentenced to seven years in prison for breaching Rwanda’s laws on genocide denial.
The YouTuber, who was arrested in 2021, denied all the charges that also included ‘inciting ethnic division and spreading false information’ for claiming that anyone who dares to challenge President Paul Kagame in elections is jailed, BBC reports.
During the trial, he told the court that it was criticism of the government in his popular YouTube videos that was the real reason for his arrest. Under Rwandan law, it is a crime to deny, downplay, or attempt to justify the genocide, in which about 800,000 people were killed in 1994.
The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels who ended the genocide are accused by rights groups of killing thousands of Hutu people in retaliation as they took power—an allegation denied by the RPF-led government.
The genocide remains a hugely sensitive issue in Rwanda, and it is illegal to fuel any sort of division.
The judge who sentenced Hakuzimana on Tuesday said his remarks on YouTube, such as those suggesting that genocide orphans were not as well cared for as the children of senior government officials, amounted to fuelling division.
The YouTuber and government critic has attracted thousands of viewers on his Rashid TV channel.
The 56-year-old represented himself during the trial but refused to mount a defence because he wanted to be referred to as a politician in court, not a YouTuber. He also complained that he had spent three years in jail since his arrest.
Following his sentencing, Hakuzimana will serve four years in prison—as the three years already spent in prison will be taken into account.
He was also fined $700 (£500). It is not yet clear if he will appeal.
Human rights groups have accused Paul Kagame’s government of using the genocide denial legislation to crack down on dissent—an allegation the government denies.
Last year, a court extended a 15-year sentence by a further two years for another YouTuber, Yvonne Idamange, found guilty of inciting violence, denigrating genocide memorials, and spreading rumours.
Idamange denied the charges and boycotted her hearings after the court denied her request to broadcast her trial online, citing concerns of bias within the court.
