Former prison boss sentenced to five years in jail for stealing from inmate

Former Director of Kigali’s main prison has been handed a 5-year jail sentence for stealing money from a British inmate.

Innocent Kayumba and his former deputy Eric Ntakirutimana, have appealed against the Rwandan court judgement, a court document shows.

Prior to being handed the jail sentence, the court acquitted an IT specialist inmate who used his skills to hack the victim’s Visa card. The IT specialist told the court that he was forced by the prison director to do so. He further revealed that he was asked to “decode” the card kept by the prison authorities after they realised that the bank account linked to it had a large sum of money.

The British-Egyptian inmate had told the court that more than £7,000 ($9,300) was taken away from his account using his card last year without his knowledge.

The court ruled that Mr Kayumba and his deputy conspired to carry out the theft, while the IT specialist was coerced to work for them, hence why he was found not guilty.

Mr Kayumba, a senior military officer, was transferred to the prison services in 2014. He headed a prison in western Rwanda before moving to the capital’s main prison. He was arrested early this year.