No let up in the tribulations of Rwanda's former presidential aspirant
Rwandan government critic Diane Shima Rwigara’s mother has denied spreading a genocide ideology.
Mrs Adeline Rwigara said in court on Monday that she was a survivor of the 1994 massacre in which members of her family were also slaughtered.
She is charged with inciting insurrection together with her two daughters, Diane and Anne Rwigara.
The prosecutor, Mr Michele Nshimiyamana, played video and audio clips in which Mrs Rwigara was recorded accusing security officers of killing Rwandans when they raided her house in late August.
“In the video, you can clearly see that she dwelt on genocide ideology by referring to law enforcers as “Interahamwe,” Mr Nshimiyamana told the court.
The Interahamwe was a militia that spearheaded the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
“What I meant in the video is that we survived the genocide and should not suffer the way we are suffering now. Our house was destroyed and my private conversations with my sisters were leaked to the press,” she said in her defence.
The prosecution also told the court that it had evidence that Diane, who was barred from contesting in the August elections, had faked signatures during a presidential bid. She is also facing forgery charges.
Mr Nshimiyamana told the court that some of the signatures belonged to dead people.
But she denied the charges saying she was being prosecuted due to her political ambitions and that some of her supporters were being threatened with imprisonment and torture.
In an emotional defence, Diane's younger sister Anne Rwigara said she had been “angry and frustrated” when the Rwanda Revenue Authority official refused talks with the family over reopening of their tobacco firm.
That was after the prosecution played an audio clip in which she was recorded as referring to the country as a “mafia state”.
The trial will resume on Wednesday.