“That Canada brings Leo”

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Léon Mugesera, pictured with his wife Gemma Uwamariya, in 2001, was deported from Canada in 2012 and eventually sentenced to life in prison in 2016 in Rwanda. His wife has never visited the site for the visit, fearing for his own safety.

Martin Lavoie

Sunday, 28 January, 2018 00:03

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Sunday, 28 January, 2018 00:03

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The wife of Léon Mugesera, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Rwanda in 2016 for incitement to genocide, denounces the conditions of detention of her husband and calls for his return.

Fearing for his own safety, Gemma Uwamariya has never been to visit her husband, imprisoned in Rwanda. “He suffers from generalized fatigue. He has dizziness, he vanishes and appears to be of the low pressure. He can’t tell me more because the phone is tapped. The problem is that the prison authorities do not want to send it to the hospital, ” says the lady in interview to the Newspaper.

File Photo, Jocelyn Malette

Gemma Uwamariya, wife of Léon Mugesera

Ms. Uwamariya still lives in Quebec, but it has left the capital. “I wanted to be back in the anonymity. In Quebec, everyone knew me, ” she said, noting that she has never, however, felt threatened. His five children live in the country, including three in Quebec.

Léon Mugesera was deported from Canada on January 23, 2012 at the end of a long legal saga that began in 1995. Rwanda requested his extradition to try him following a speech in this country in 1992, which would have led to the genocide of 800 000 Tutsis by the Hutus.

At the time, a civil war raged in Rwanda. Referred by an arrest warrant three days after his speech, Léon Mugesera fled the country in December of the same year, and settled in Quebec in 1993 with his wife and their five children. The genocide occurred in 1994.

Ms. Uwamariya continues to support that translations accusers were wrong.

Blood tutsi

To prove that her husband did not hate the Tutsi, Ms. Uwamariya said to be part of this group and have several of their representatives from among his relatives. “In my veins flows the blood hutu and tutsi. I have cousins and cousins of the tutsi. Leon and I are the godparents of two of Tutsis. Our marriage was celebrated by four priests, including three Tutsi, and one was a very good friend of Leo. We had a lot of friends tutsis in Rwanda. The godmother of my eldest son is a Tutsi “, as she advanced.

“While he was a professor at the university of Rwanda, Léon was made to hire a Tutsi. However, 30 years later, the son of the Tutsi came to testify during the trial-river that Leon hated the Tutsis. It is unlikely that Leon has hated the people he dealt with and helped. But in Rwanda today, anyone who did not testify as the prosecutor intends to risk of serious trouble “, she adds.

The lady also says that her husband was not able to present witnesses in his trial in Rwanda, ” even if he had. They were sentenced while he is not defended. “

The federal Court of appeal in 2003 had concluded that ” the message that was delivered by Mr. Mugesera is not, objectively speaking […] a message of incitement to murder, hatred or genocide. “She added that the international Commission of inquiry” based its findings concerning the discourse on the excerpts she has chosen carefully and has, in addition, manipulated, and on a translation which is substantially different from the one retained for the purposes of these procedures. “

Ms. Uwamariya, expressed regret that the cause of her husband has never been considered in Canada “on the merits” and that his fate was ” decided on the policy and not the law.”

Guarantees

Last September 28, the african Court on human rights has called for better conditions of incarceration in the prison of Mpanga for Leon Mugesera. “His health is deteriorating day by day. He is abandoned to injustice. Is this the way that the Ottawa government, who gave Leo his tormentors, conceives the defense of the rights of the person ? ” states the wife.

“Rwanda had signed diplomatic assurances that Leon was going to be treated well and that he was going to have a fair and just trial. But it appears that nothing that has not been complied with. So I ask Canada to do everything to get him back “, concludes Gemma Uwamariya.

15 years of debate

November 22, 1992

Léon Mugesera gave a speech in Rwanda

December 1992

He fled Rwanda with his family while the government tries to stop it

August 12, 1993

He, his wife and their 5 children arrived in Quebec

April 7, 1994

The beginning of the genocide of the Tutsis

1995

The ministry of Immigration of Canada demand the expulsion of Leon Mugesera

July 11, 1996

The Commission of immigration shall order his expulsion

November 6, 1998

The appeal Division of the Commission maintained the order of eviction

September 8, 2003

The federal Court of appeal annuls the expulsion

June 28, 2005

The supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of appeal. The expulsion is delayed, the Rwanda practicing the death penalty

July 25, 2007

Rwanda abolishes the death penalty

November 24, 2011

The federal portion that Léon Mugesera will not face significant risk if he returns to Rwanda

January 23, 2012

Léon Mugesera is deported

April 15, 2016

He is sentenced to life in prison

September 28, 2017

The african Court of human rights ordered the authorities to ” cease any action which would cause to his physical integrity and his or her health “