Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza told the High Court in Kigali on Thursday that she could not be held responsible for activities carried out by members of FDU-Inkingi while she was in prison, saying the party became involved with P5 during her absence.
Ingabire, who is standing trial with nine others on seven charges linked to an alleged plan to overthrow the Rwandan government, was responding to prosecution allegations concerning FDU-Inkingi’s links to P5 and RUD-Urunana.
She said FDU-Inkingi was represented by its then vice-president, Joseph Bukeye, when P5 members signed an agreement in August 2015 to establish the coalition.
At the time, Ingabire was in prison and said she had no contact with Bukeye or authority over the party’s activities.
“I remained president in name, but I had no authority over the party’s activities while I was in prison,” she told the court.
P5’s leadership rotated among its member organisations, which Ingabire said included FDU-Inkingi, RNC, PDI-Imanzi and RUD-Urunana.
She said FDU-Inkingi later became involved in sending people to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to take part in activities aimed at removing Rwanda’s government, but maintained that this happened while she was imprisoned.
Ingabire was released in 2018. She told the court that she then found that FDU-Inkingi had developed separate structures inside and outside Rwanda. She said she asked members to correct the arrangement but they refused.
That disagreement eventually led her to leave FDU-Inkingi and establish DALFA Umurinzi in 2019, she said.
Prosecutors have argued that Ingabire, as president of FDU-Inkingi, should have dissolved the party if she believed it had become involved in activities that could threaten national security.
Ingabire rejected the argument, saying the party’s rules did not give its president the power to dissolve it unilaterally.
“A political party has rules governing it. Even as president, I did not have the authority to dissolve FDU-Inkingi on my own,” she said.
She also rejected allegations that DALFA Umurinzi was created as a terrorist or criminal organisation. Ingabire said she founded the party to pursue political change through peaceful means and that it had never carried out activities intended to harm the government.
Ingabire returned to Rwanda from the Netherlands in 2010. She told the court that her purpose was to participate in politics and seek political change through peaceful means.
The High Court adjourned the hearing at 12:59 p.m. and set Oct. 5 for the next session.
