Aimable Karasira Uzaramba, a YouTube political commentator, was arrested in 2021. In September 2025, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of instigating divisions. Karasira has alleged mistreatment, beatings, and denial of medical care in detention.
In 2011, Karasira launched the YouTube channel Ukuri Mbona (The Truth as I See It) and had published over 200 videos, including political commentary, with about 63,000 subscribers, at the time of his arrest, according to CPJ’s review.
On May 31, 2021, Rwanda Investigation Bureau officers arrested Karasira for the crimes of denying and justifying Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and of inciting division in his social media commentary, the law enforcement agency said.
In July 2021, Kigali’s Nyarugenge Intermediate Court charged Karasira, who is Tutsi, with denial of the genocide, justification of the genocide, causing public unrest, and instigating divisions, according to news reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ.
In June 2023, prosecutors introduced an additional charge of illicit enrichment and embezzlement, and in November 2023, added the charge of money laundering. Prosecutors said that during a 2021 search of Karasira’s residence they had found over US$10,000, which he had been unable to account for.
Rwanda’s genocide laws aim to prevent hate speech, which played a significant role in the 1994 genocide, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The laws have been criticized by human rights and free speech advocates as being so broad as to stifle freedom of expression.
Prosecutors accused Karasira of saying that the genocide was not planned — a crime under the genocide law — but that it was an act of self-defense by the Hutu government in response to the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front’s (RPF) 1990 invasion, according to news reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ.
The genocide began in April 1994 when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and ended 100 days later when the RPF took control of the capital, Kigali, and formed a political party, which continues to rule Rwanda.
In court documents, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors cited three videos published in 2021: a May 15 video on Pax TV, a May 20 video on Ukuri Mbona, and a May 23 video on Umurabyo Online TV, without providing links. In 2021, CPJ reviewed three videos on these YouTube channels, corresponding to these dates, in which Karasira’s comments echoed the prosecution’s allegations.
Karasira expressed support for the political opposition and hatred of President Paul Kagame and the ruling RPF, whose forces he accused of killing his parents in 1994. He also claimed that gacaca courts — community-based courts that tried more than 1 million people after the genocide — had convicted people for crimes they did not commit. In addition, Karasira accused authorities of conflating critical political opinions with genocide ideology and of carrying out political assassinations.
Karasira’s defense team repeatedly said that his judgment was compromised by mental illness when he made the videos and requested that he be freed on bail to receive treatment, according to two people familiar with the case and court documents. The court ordered three different medical examinations of Karasira, which gave differing views. The most recent, in June 2023, said he was fit to stand trial.
In 2022, Karasira told the court that prison officials were beating him, depriving him of sleep, and denying him adequate food and treatment for his diabetes and mental illness. Karasira’s defense said prison officials were interfering in confidential client-lawyer communications, according to court transcripts reviewed by CPJ.
Despite the defense’s objections, Karasira’s trial began on November 23, 2023, in the High Court’s cross border crime chamber. In 2024, both of Karasira’s lawyers withdrew from the case on unclear grounds and Karasira requested the court release funds held as evidence to pay new lawyers.
In hearings between January and July 2025, Karasira denied the charges against him, arguing that the prosecution had misunderstood his commentary, and saying that he had earned the money through YouTube payments, the BBC reported. At the conclusion of his trial, Karasira apologized to anyone who may have been hurt by his words and the prosecution asked the court to issue a 30-year sentence, according to media reports.
On September 30, 2025, the court dismissed the charges of illicit enrichment and embezzlement, acquitted Karasira of genocide denial, genocide justification, and causing unrest but convicted him of inciting divisions, sentencing him to five years in prison, according to news reports and court documents, reviewed by CPJ.
In a November 2022 email to CPJ, the Ministry of Justice that the cases against Karasira and other detained journalists in Rwanda were “conducted in full accordance” with the law and none of their “offenses related to their purported journalistic activities.” It said Karasira had not sought remedy from the courts for his alleged ill-treatment.
As of late 2025, the Ministry of Justice and the Rwanda Correctional Service had yet to respond to subsequent emails from CPJ, which included queries on allegations that Karasira had been tortured.