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| - Rwandan journalist and critic of President Paul Kagame's regime, Cassien Ntamuhanga, has been arrested in Mozambique and handed over to the Rwandan embassy in Maputo, a police source said Friday. Ntamuhanga "was detained on May 23, in Inhaca Island," by Mozambique police and a Rwanda secret service agent, the police source told AFP. He was then handed over to the Rwandan embassy on Tuesday "from where he is supposed to be taken to Kigali," the source added. The island of Inhaca is located off the coast of Mozambique, separating the bay of Maputo from the Indian Ocean. Approached for comment by AFP, the Mozambican Interior Ministry denied having made the arrest. "The police first confirmed his detention but now they are not telling us anything," said Cleophas Habiyaremye of the Mozambican Association of Rwandan Refugees. Ntamuhanga, former director of Rwanda's Amazing Grace radio station, was sentenced in 2015 to 25 years in prison for "forming a criminal group," "conspiring against the government or the president of the Republic" and "conspiracy to commit an assassination." Following his conviction, he went into exile in Mozambique. There is no known extradition agreement between the two countries. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had denounced the conviction as a sign of Kagame's desire to "muzzle" dissenting voices in the run-up to the last presidential election in 2017. Kagame has ruled Rwanda with an iron fist since the end of the genocide that cost the lives of some 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, in 1994. The country is regularly criticised, particularly by the opposition, for attacks on freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch reported in March that at least eight people reporting or commenting on the country had been arrested and threatened by authorities over the past year. President since 2000, Kagame had the constitution amended in 2015, theoretically allowing him to remain in power until 2034. At the end of April, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi paid an official visit to Kigali. str-cld/ger/mgu/pvh
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