Retired Captain David Kabuye has been acquitted by the Rwandan High Court of revolt charges, for which he faced a 15-year jail term.

He was however found guilty of publicly insulting prison officers during his stay in custody, a charge which the judge ordered he would serve five months.

But Kabuye will not spend time behind bars after the judge declared he was free to go home for having been in remand since March this year.

The prosecution accused him, while in prison, of claiming that mysterious bodies found in Lake Rweru, at the Rwanda-Burundi border, last year were of Rwandans; and for supporting a controversial documentary by BBC that gave a different account of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The prosecution argued that Kabuye aimed at "inciting insurrection and stirring hate for the government”.

READ: Rwanda, Burundi: Bodies in Lake Rweru not ours

However, Judge Timothie Kanyegeri ruled that Kabuye’s utterances were “not made in meetings, public places, or in writings.”

Adding that: “We find that Rtd Captain Kabuye did nothing in public to spread rumours or incite the population against the established government. We find him not guilty of this charge,” he said.

There were isolated shouts of joy in the court room after the ruling from a handful of his relatives including his wife, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rose Kabuye.
She was President Paul Kagame’s former head of protocol.

Kabuye was rearrested in March this year on charges of inciting public insurrection, shortly after serving a six-month jail term for illegal possession of firearms.

Both Kabuye and his wife were part of the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPF) liberation struggle that ended the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

STATE WITNESS

Kabuye is one of the key prosecution witnesses in an ongoing treason case against retired Brig-Gen Frank Rusagara at the Military High Court.

READ: Rusagara challenges validity of search warrant in treason case