Rwanda ‘ s Liberation ers because I am not too naive to assume that Rwandan officials are blind to the fact that this is a high-profile case , which attracts the strictest scrutiny at every step of the process . Third , whether he is a Belgian / EU national or US resident or not is inconsequential to the territorial jurisdiction of the country where the alleged crimes were committed .
I would , however , like to focus on a contradiction that pervades almost all the statements and campaigns from those advocating the release of Mr Paul Rusesabagina , which makes it difficult to know what these advocates stand for . To illustrate , let me take one statement . On 4 May 2021 , at the request of an unnamed interested party , the President of the European Bars Federation , Dominique ATTIAS , issued a letter ‘ demanding the Rwandan authorities that [ Rusesabagina be given ] the right to be assisted by a lawyer of his own choice and to a fair trial with all guarantees before an impartial court , and recalling the legal principle of presumption of innocence .’ Paradoxically , in the same letter , she ‘ argues for an immediate release and safe return of Mr Paul Rusesabagina , to his home to be reunited with his family .’ Certainly , this presumably kind-hearted lawyer is entitled to requesting anything , but she ought also to know that she cannot get both at the same time : she cannot have her cake and eat it . Dominique ATTIAS should choose between due process and immediate release . Whereas due process is an outcome of a court process , the immediate release is political in nature . This leaves me wondering whether the European Bars Federation , which she represents , is an organisation of lawyers or politicians . Moreover , I would argue that calling for the immediate release of a suspect outside a court process does not contribute to the judicial independence that we all seek to achieve . I implore Rwandan authorities to resist this manipulation because it would undermine our hard-earned rule of law .
I understand that talking of the rule of law in Rwanda to these critics sounds ironical because that is the first thing they claim does not exist . There is a recurrent narrative that , in Rwanda , fair trial standards are often compromised in ‘ sensitive political cases , in which security-related charges are often used to prosecute prominent government critics .’ Assuming this was true , continuing to undermine the supposedly little judicial independence that Rwanda has worked hard to earn can never be the best solution . To take this argument a little further , if we are to use a deductive approach , it is the critics ’ point of view that Rwandan courts are impartial and independent when it comes to cases that do not involve charges related to security . This is a significant achievement . Nonetheless , because the majority of cases handled by Rwandan courts not related to security ( which suggests that due judicial processes are followed in such cases ), I think that , if anything , more efforts should be dedicated to strengthening , instead of undermining , those gains .
But we know for a fact that Rusesabagina is not prosecuted for merely being a critic of the government of Rwanda . We also know that all states deal with cases related to security . It would therefore be outrageous if a state accepted to be intimidated into not prosecuting suspects of security-related crimes . It would mean that such a state has forfeited its primary responsibility of providing order and security to its people , which would significantly weaken state legitimacy since the latter depends , to a large extent , on the state ’ s ability to provide order and security to its citizens . Rwanda is no different ; it is not the state of nature where anarchists are free to do whatever pleases them . Neither are Rwandans lotus-eaters . Citing Dahl and Lindblom , David A . Baldwin in his ‘ Concept of Security ’ notes : ‘ Men are not lotus-eaters .’ In Greek mythology , lotus-eaters were a race of people living on an island dominated by lotus plants , and those people depended on fruits and flowers of those plants which had narcotics that caused them to sleep peacefully . This is not to say that Rwandans are dangerous either . They are not different from other people ; they are capable of being both kind and cruel . Just like other people , Rwandans keep working on themselves to avoid anything that would return them to the dark times , and westerners should know well what it takes because they have been there before us . When Nazis killed Jews many decades ago , the West took several measures to remedy the damage , including denazification and banning anything related to the Nazi ideology ; they also adopted laws criminalising antisemitism and the denial of the holocaust , among others . Yet , the same legal
31