Rwanda’s opposition leader Victoire Ingabire faces life imprisonment after being accused of ‘forming a criminal group’ – but her family and lawyers say that the justice system is being used to silence her.
Ingabire’s son, Rémy Amahirwa has been spearheading a campaign for her release. When he hugged his mother in March 2025, it was the first time they had seen each other for 15 years. She had been in prison for eight of those, following her arrest in October 2010 while she was preparing to challenge Paul Kagame for the presidency. Amahirwa, who lives in Sweden, was just 17 when she was first jailed. Her younger son was eight. ‘It affected all of us a lot,’ Amahirwa says. ‘It was very warm to hug her again... It felt like she never left.’
