Rwandan security forces arrested Théoneste Nsengimana on October 13, 2021, after he posted a video on his YouTube channel promoting an event to discuss political prisoners, organized by the unregistered DALFA-Umurinzi party, which is headed by opposition figure Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. In October 2024, Nsengimana’s trial began, alongside eight members of DALFA-Umurinzi, on charges of spreading rumors and association with a criminal group.
Nsengimana runs the YouTube channel Umubavu TV Online, which in late 2024 had over 140,000 subscribers to its critical reporting and commentary on Rwandan politics, including interviews with opposition politicians. The channel has not published any new content since his arrest.
The day before his arrest, Nsengimana published a video promoting a program and event on October 14, 2021, to commemorate political prisoners in Rwanda called “Ingabire Day”— in reference to Ingabire, who returned to Rwanda from exile in The Netherlands in 2010, to vie for the presidency, and was then jailed for eight years.
Prosecutors said that Nsengimana’s video and the event were part of a plot by DALFA-Umurinzi to overthrow the government, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ. They said the video spread falsehoods and aimed to incite the public by accusing the government of political killings and arbitrary detentions, those documents added.
Prosecutors argued that DALFA-Umurinzi members plotted to overthrow the government in September 2021 discussions about the book “Blueprint for a Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World,” according to those documents, which stated that Nsengimana did not attend the discussions.
In an October 2021 court document, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors said Nsengimana and eight other detained people, all members of DALFA-Umurinzi and associates of Ingabire, were under investigation on charges that included : joining a criminal association, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years under Rwanda’s penal code; inciting unrest, which carries up to 15 years; and spreading rumors, which carries up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 3 million Rwandan francs (US$3,000) under Rwanda’s cybercrimes law.
A March 2022 court document, reviewed by CPJ, indicated that Nsengimana was only facing two charges: criminal association and spreading rumors. He was denied bail in 2021 and 2022.
Nsengimana was previously detained in April 2020 for several weeks on allegations of fraud, in a wave of arrests of journalists reporting critically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a March 2024 opinion, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Nsengimana and his co-defendants were detained arbitrarily as their arrests resulted from the “peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and assembly” and called on the Rwandan government to release them immediately and to accord them enforceable rights to compensation.
In its response to the U.N., the Rwandan government rejected as “baseless” claims of discrimination on the basis of political opinion and said that the arrests and detentions had been carried out in accordance with domestic and international law.
In October 2024, the trial against Nsengimana and his co-defendants began in Kigali, according to the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America and a person familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. The court rejected Nsengimana’s appeal to have his case tried separately from his co-defendants, the person familiar with the case told CPJ. VOA reported that Nsengimana said he would not need a lawyer to represent him. The case was ongoing in late 2024.
In a November 2022 email to CPJ, the Ministry of Justice said that the cases against Nsengimana and other detained journalists in Rwanda were “conducted in full accordance” with the law and that none of their “offenses related to their purported journalistic activities.”
As of late 2024, Rwanda’s Ministry of Justice, National Public Prosecution Authority, and Rwanda Correctional Service had yet to respond to CPJ’s emails requesting comment. A request for comment sent via messaging app to National Public Prosecution Authority spokesperson Faustin Nkusi was also unanswered.