Inmate believed to be mastermind behind UWI kidnapping

TRINIDAD - The man who is believed to have orchestrated the daring, daylight kidnapping last week of UWI manager Maria Dass-Supersad, at the St Augustine campus, did so from behind prison walls. National Security intelligence sources said this prisoner is suspected of running an illegal operation from his prison cell and has a group of people on the outside carrying out illegal activities on his behalf, in return for cold, hard cash. Investigators used technology to get information about the prisoner’s involvement in last week’s kidnapping and he and four other prisoners are expected to be investigated. Two Diego Martin men who were arrested during the rescue of Dass-Supersad, remain in custody as investigations continue. Detectives of the Police Service Cyber Crime Unit examined data from cellphones found on the two suspects which showed the link between the prisoner and Dass-Supersad’s kidnappers. Last Wednesday at 3 pm, Dass-Supersad was snatched as she was making her way to her car which was parked near the north entrance of the campus. She was snatched by two men, one dressed in police uniform including a bulletproof vest and the other dressed in army fatigues.

The man made Dass-Supersad walk seven miles, in her highheel shoes, in the Caura forest before reaching a makeshift camp where she was drugged in order to be kept under control.

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to Maria DassSupersad. (Photo: Stabroek News) move her to another location of Spain, was marked for but Dass-Supersad was rescued kidnapping because she was when police intercepted deemed an easy target and it the car she was in along Caura was thought she was well off Royal Road at 8.30 pm last financially. But her husband Wednesday. Vikash Supersad, who works Police Commissioner Gary for an oil company, dismissed Griffith said he did not wish this claim and said he is renting to divulge information on the an apartment from a status of the investigation, but friend, at a reduced cost. admitted that prisoners are Dass-Supersad was interviewed involved in organising kidnappings by Anti-Kidnapping Unit and murders from (AKU) officers last Friday behind prison walls. and gave a statement to Sgt “This could also include not Nixon and WPC Andrews. only prisoners themselves, On Saturday, Vikash issued but also people contacting a press release thanking the and contracting prisoners to police, relatives, friends and conduct illicit activities. This people on social media who is intelligence and through the prayed and offered support Minister of National Security, for the family. Yesterday he the prison and police service said he did not wish to comment are now working hand in hand any further, because of to put an end to the previous the ongoing police probe. easy access of messages being Investigators have ruled passed to certain prisoners out any involvement of and having them send it back Supersad’s relatives in her out,” Griffith said. kidnapping.

It is believed that DassSupersad, who lives in Port

(Stabroek News) US - A group of members of the US Congress are calling on the Rwandan government to drop charges against Diane Rwigara, a fierce government critic who is facing up to 22 years in prison on charges of incitement and fraud. Rwigara, 37, has long said that the charges against her are politically motivated and stem from her bid to run against President Paul Kagame in the 2017 elections.

Days after she announced her plan to run for office, nude photos -- allegedly of her -were posted online. Rwigara says the images were digitally altered and used by the government to discredit her as both a female and opposition voice. A spokesman for Kagame’s party at the time denied to CNN having anything to do with the photos. Rwigara was eventually disqualified from contesting the election by electoral authorities, who said she doctored the number of signatures needed to qualify and accused her of submitting the names of dead people. Shortly after, Rwigara launched an activist group to “encourage Rwandans to hold their government accountable,” but was soon arrested on charges of incitement and fraud, charges she denies.

Her mother, Adeline, was also arrested on charges of divisionism and inciting insurrection, based on WhatsApp messages exchanged between her and her sister, who lives outside Rwanda.

The pair spent more than a year in prison before they were released on bail in October. They are expected to be sentenced on December 6.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan commission of the US House of Representatives, convened a briefing on Rwanda’s human rights record and political prisoners that highlighted the Rwigara case.

The commission’s co-chairman, Rep. Randy Hultgren, RIllinois, said the briefing was called ‘to raise awareness of serious human rights issues occurring in Rwanda.” “Prisoners of conscience who have been arbitrarily imprisoned by the Rwandan government should receive justice and be released,” Hultgren said in a statement emailed to CNN.

Rwanda’s Office of the President did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The commission heard from a panel of experts including representatives from Amnesty International and Freedom Now, an organization that represents political prisoners before international human rights courts.

Adotei Akwei, deputy director for advocacy and government relations at Amnesty International USA called the Rwigara case a “chilling expose on the culture of fear and repression that exist in Rwanda,” and recommended that the international community call on Kagame and his government to prevent restrictions on, or harassment of opposition politicians, their supporters journalists and human rights defenders.

Kate Barth, Freedom Now’s legal director, told the commission the Rwigara case exemplifies many of the violations against government critics in Rwanda.

“Arbitrary detention of government critics is possible because the Kagame administration exercises significant control over the country’s judiciary,” Barth said. Akwei and Barth also detailed other human rights violations, citing reports from Human Rights Watch and the US State Department on extrajudicial political assassinations and persecutions against dissidents, issues that Rwigara also sought to bring to the forefront of the national conversation before her imprisonment.

Rwanda’s National Police, Office of the President and its ruling political party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, have not responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment on those allegations.

(CNN)