A 25-year-old Rwandese woman will serve life in jail after a court in the capital city, Kigali, found her guilty of her husband’s murder.
Assoumpta Mutatsineza plotted and executed the murder of her spouse, Theogene Twagirayezu, on November 21, 2022, the Nyarugenge Intermediate Court ruled on Friday.
The court heard that Mutatsineza had previously attempted to poison her partner, including on November 19, but wasn’t successful.
On November 21, she conspired with her lover, Alphonse Uyisenga, to fatally assault Twagirayezu, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) said in court.
The presiding judge, in her ruling, said that the suspects played different roles in the murder, and that they would face separate sentences, Rwanda’s The New Times reports.
The main suspect, Mutatsineza, had in May confessed to killing her spouse before recanting her confession, the prosecution said.
According to the prosecution’s testimony, the suspect claimed she wasn’t feeling loved in her marriage, and that was why she murdered her partner.
Mutatsineza allegedly conspired with Uyisenga to kill Twagirayezu so that they could formalise their affair, the court heard.
The key suspect was alleged to have sought the services of one Vianney Rubabaza to murder her husband.
Police established that Twagirayezu was killed in his bedroom in Kicukiro Village, Nyarugenge district. Postmortem indicated he had been hit in the head using a blunt object, and had also been stabbed.
Whereas Mutatsineza will serve life in jail, her co-accused were given varying sentences.
