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Liberian Judiciary drops charges against journalist Henry Costa after 2 years in exile

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The Judiciary in Liberia says it has dropped all charges against prominent government critic, Henry Costa, who has been in personal exile in the United States since 2020.

The West African Country’s Department of Justice announced in a statement on Thursday evening that the charges against him had been dropped with immediate effect and invited Mr. Costa to return to Liberia to “live freely like any other citizen”.

Henry Pedro Costa is a popular Liberian radio talk show host on Root FM who is popularly known by his followers as “The Voice of the Voiceless”. Costa is also a fierce critic of Liberian President George Weah and is one of the leaders of the Council of Patriots, an opposing group that organised mass protests against Weah in June 2019.

Augustine Nagbe, alias “General Power,” an ex-rebel general, led a team of armed riot police in October 2019 to the premises of Roots FM 102.7 to effect the closure of the radio station.

The Liberian Immigration Service claimed the popular host traveled with fake documents but Mr. Costa insisted he travelled with a laissez-passer document, which he said he obtained from the foreign affairs ministry but he later presented himself at the headquarters of the Liberian Immigration Service (LIS) unaccompanied by his lawyer Findley Kangar.

Despite the dropped charges, the Judiciary however warned Costa against spreading disinformation and called on him to respect the law.

“The ministry will not stand idly by and allow anyone to hijack the democratic space with lies, invective, and disinformation for selfish reasons,” the ministry said.

Metro

Rwandan President, Kagame sacks over 200 military personnel in major shake-up

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Rwandan President, Paul Kagame has sacked over 200 soldiers including top military brass and commanders from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) in a massive shake-up.

The dismissed officers include the former Commander of the Reserve Forces, Maj. Gen. Aloys Muganga, and Brig. Gen. Francis Mutiganda, a former Head of External Security in the National Intelligence Services, as well as 14 senior officers.

The announcement of the sacking of the officers which was contained in a statement released by the RDF on Wednesday, did not give reason for the sackings, but the move come a day after the president reshuffled the top echelon of the country’s military, which saw the firing of the Defence Minister and an Army Chief.

The sacking of the soldiers has further heightened tension between Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, with each side accusing the other of working with rebels to topple one another’s governments, according to reports in local media.

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UN war crimes court declares Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga unfit to stand trial

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An 88-year-old Rwandan genocide suspect, Felicien Kabuga has been declared unfit to stand trial by judges at a United Nations War Crimes Court in The Hague.

In a decision published by the court on Wednesday, the judges acknowledged that Kabuga was no longer able to actively participate in his trial, and rather proposed an alternative process that aims to resemble a trial but does not allow for a conviction instead of stopping the proceedings completely.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Kabuga is no longer capable of meaningful participation in his trial,” the publication said.

“The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, therefore, finds that Mr. Kabuga is not fit for trial and is very unlikely to regain fitness in the future.

“It is therefore agreed to adopt an alternative finding procedure that resembles a trial as closely as possible, but without the possibility of a conviction,” it added.

Kabuga who was arrested in Paris where he had been in hiding under a false identity for several years, was one of the most wanted suspects of the Rwandan genocide, and was charged at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda with genocide and crimes against humanity.

At his initial arraignment in September last year, the ICC heard that Kabuga was alleged to have been the main financier of the ethnic Hutu militias who slaughtered over 800,000 minority Tutsis as well as political opponents during the genocide in 1994.

According to the UN, Kabuga, a wealthy businessman from the Hutu ethnic group, had established and financed an infamous media outfit, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was notorious for inciting violence and promoting the targeting and elimination of individuals from the Tutsi ethnic group who were referred to as “Cockroaches”.

Kabuga was arrested in Paris in 2020 after decades on the run and sent for trial in The Hague where he pleaded not guilty to charges of sponsoring the infamous Hutu radical radio station urging people to kill Tutsi “cockroaches”.

He also denied supplying machetes and supporting the murderous Interahamwe Hutu militia.

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