Miss Rwanda organiser nabbed for sexually abusing contestants
After successfully organising the annual Miss Rwanda Beauty Pageant for almost a decade, Dieudonné Ishimwe popularly called Prince kid, the Chief Executive Officer of the show has been arrested following an allegations of sexually abusing contestants and related crimes.
The Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) spokesman, Thierry Murangira, revealed that the suspect was taken into custody on Tuesday over alleged “sexual assault-related crimes.
Murangira said the 36-year-old suspect was facing charges that he allegedly committed offenses against former contestants of Miss Rwanda at various times.
The case, he said would be referred to the prosecution “in due time.”
This comes just a month after the chief executive officer of Rwanda Inspiration Back Up, the company that organises the annual contest organised the 2022 edition.
Mr Ishimwe was said to have not responded to the accusations against him.
The Miss Rwanda pageant is one of the most followed events in Rwanda.
An employee of the organising company told the medis that four girls who contested last year and in this year’s edition had made complaints to investigators before his arrest.
“While the case was still under investigation, he was arrested on Monday”, she told the BBC under a condition of anonymity.
A state investigator is quoted by local media as saying that Mr Ishimwe “is suspected of sexual abuse charges towards Miss Rwanda contestants on different occasions”.
Leading one to $e× acts “by force, threats, trickery or by use of authority over that person” is punishable by up to 15 years in prison in Rwanda.
The organisation announced last week that the 2016 Miss Rwanda had resigned as communications director after four years with the company.
Miss Rwanda debuted in the global Miss World competition in 2016, according to its website. It bills itself as the East African country’s leading beauty pageant.
Meanwhile, after unveiling himself in 2016 as the organiser of the flagship beauty pageant, Dieudonné Ishimwe who was then 28 years described himself as “a passionate, sober, disciplined guy” that l*ves his country, Rwanda; one who knew that “there is no one that can bring solutions to our problems but Rwandans themselves”.
He added that: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I’m still single.”
Source: www.spotonnews.net
