\n Rwandan authorities on Monday said they had arrested a highly critical YouTuber on charges of denying the 1994 genocide, which could land him in jail for over a decade if he is found guilty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Aimable Karasira, 40, a former university lecturer, runs a popular YouTube channel with over 62,000 subscribers, from where he launches regular attacks against the Rwandan government.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kigali has often come under fire from rights groups for cracking down on free speech and misusing laws on genocide denial to round up critics.\n<\/p>\n
\n However Karasira's views are seen as more radical than most in a country where it is taboo and dangerous to publically debate some aspects of the genocide, which left some 800,000 mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Aimable Karasira has been commenting on social media for days about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, saying it was unplanned and sowed divisions among Rwandans,\" said a statement by the Rwanda Investigative Bureau (RIB), released late Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The statement said he will be charged under laws on genocide ideology and revisionism.\n<\/p>\n
\n Karasira was recently fired from the University of Rwanda, where he taught information technology, for \"indiscipline\".\n<\/p>\n
\n In a video posted on May 20, Karasira criticised the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front for \"fueling hate\" and questioned key aspects of the genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last year in September, Rwandan police threatened to arrest and charge Karasira for interviewing a former presidential aspirant who is also critical of the government.\n<\/p>\n
\n The politician, Fred Barafinda Sekikubo, said he had been arrested in 2019 and forced into a mental institution for seven months in a bid to change his political views.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RIB said the presidential aspirant had been \"diagnosed to be insane\" and was \"not fit to be interviewed\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Under Rwanda's tightly controlled media landscape, where dissent is not tolerated, YouTube has exploded in popularity, and several people speaking out on the platform have been arrested.\n<\/p>\n
\n In March, a local woman Yvonne Ndamange was arrested after using the channel to call for protests against President Paul Kagame's \"dictatorial rule\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Upon her arrest, police issued a statement saying that she was \"exhibiting behaviour that mixes politics, criminality, and madness.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile Innocent Bahati, who published critical poems on YouTube has been missing since February 7.\n<\/p>\n
\n Human Rights Watch has said his disappearance should be treated as \"suspicious\" given his previous detentions for criticising the government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rwandan authorities on Monday said they had arrested a highly critical YouTuber on charges of denying the 1994 genocide, which could land him in jail for over a decade if he is found guilty. Aimable Karasira, 40, a former university lecturer, runs a popular YouTube channel with over 62,000 subscribers, from where he launches regular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-77919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n