Rwanda set to initiate 'plea bargain' to curb overcrowding in prisons

By Hudson Kuteesa, KIGALI Rwanda

Plea bargaining is set to be officially rolled out in Rwanda with a total of 373 suspects having expressed interest in it, and registered their cases to be handled through the procedure.

In law, plea bargaining is the practice of negotiating an agreement between the prosecution and the defence, whereby the defendant pleads guilty to particular charges in exchange for a lenient sentence.

Wednesday, October 12 is the day when Rwanda’s justice system will start implementing the procedure, beginning with a five-year pilot phase in five intermediate courts: Gasabo, Nyarugenge, Gicumbi, Muhanga, and Musanze.

During the pilot phase, plea bargaining will be only applied in cases involving assault and theft.

Since last week, officials from the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) and lawyers, among others, visited Nyarugenge Prison and sensitized various detainees about the procedure.

Here, 373 detainees remanded on charges of theft and assault registered their cases for plea bargaining, and this according to the officials, is a factor that shows how interested they are in the procedure.

Plea bargaining is one of the measures that the justice sector is counting on to not only reduce backlog in courts and overcrowding in prisons, but also deliver justice in a faster and more efficient way.

According to Juvenal Marizamunda, the Commissioner-General of Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS), the country’s correctional facilities are home to about 10,550 detainees who are waiting for their day in court.

This is equivalent to twelve per cent of the total prison population.

“Some detainees have stayed in detention for weeks, others for months,” he said on Tuesday, October 11, during an event organised by the Judiciary to mark the commencement of plea bargaining in the country.

He welcomed plea bargaining as a mechanism that will assist many of them to access justice in a quick way.

Faustin Ntezilyayo, the Chief Justice of Rwanda said the goal of the procedure is not to allow people to escape justice for the crime they have committed or limit the jurisdiction of the prosecution or courts.

“The goal instead is to encourage the accused persons to accept responsibility when appropriate and bring faster justice to the accused, the victims but also the community,” he said.

Moise Nkundabarashi, the President of the Rwanda Bar Association noted that it is important to come up with such solutions in the criminal justice system, in order to deal with the problems that are facing the justice sector currently.

“At this point in time, looking at the issues and challenges that we are facing in our correctional services, we cannot afford to continue operating in the same way that we used to,” he said.