Prosecution issues arrest warrants to 8 countries for people who embezzled public from Rwanda

The government of Rwanda has issued arrest warrants to eight countries to arrest people who embezzled more than a billion Rwanda francs and put it in offshore accounts in these countries. This was communicated at the launch of the anti-corruption week in the judiciary. 

The public prosecution committee said that thirteen Rwandans both in the country and outside are the ones that put more than a billion Rwandan francs and put them on offshore accounts in eight countries. The money was embezzled 

Prosecutor  General Aimable Havugiyaremye told RBA that requests to arrest these people and blocking their accounts have already been sent to different countries.

Havugiyaremye said; We had plans of working with other countries in the fight against corruption. There are some people already escaping these countries because of the arrest warrants that we sent out to these countries because we know people that live there that have embezzled government funds and we want them to be arrested and sent them back here. We are also implementing plans to work with different countries to let us know when someone sets up an offshore account, they can let us know as we collectively work to fight against corruption," 

The prosecution also says that there are other nine people that sought refuge in other countries that had forty accounts that were blocked with over four hundred million francs.

Apart from the accounts that were blocked, there are also houses that were confiscated that were worth four hundred million Rwanda Francs.

Some of the countries where these people have the offshore accounts include Canada, United States of America, as well as the African continent and Europe

Chief Justice Dr Faustin Ntezilyayo says in a bid to fight against corruption in the Judiciary, there are some people in the judiciary that were already punished as well as cases waiting to be heard in this anticorruption week of the judiciary. 

Chief Justice Ntezilyayo said; "As we continue to fight corruption, there are some employees of the judiciary that have over time been punished for committing corruption crimes. Between 2005 and 2019, 47 judges and employees of the judiciary were punished by the public prosecution according to the laws. For this anti-corruption week, there are ongoing actions including hearing more than 100 cases," 

This year’s anti-corruption week started today and will end on the 14th of Feb and it is themed: "Corruption Is UnAcceptable Crime, Avoid it"

The Judicial sector is one of the corrupt sectors according to a recent report released by Transparency International Rwanda that showed that the judiciary comes fourth because of its employees who are corrupt at a rate of 9.41%