Estarás calls for "international pressure" to free Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire

PalmRosa Estaràs, a member of the European Parliament for the People's Party (PP), has called for increased international pressure on the Rwandan government to release opposition leader Victoire Ingabire and protect her fundamental rights. The MEP made this request in the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee, where Ingabire's son, Rémy Amahirwa, was present. He described the situation as a "permanent attack on human rights" and on everything she stands for, according to the PP. During her remarks, Estaràs, who knows Victoire and her family personally through her connection to Mallorca, recalled the long string of arrests and unfair legal proceedings Ingabire has endured since 2010.

After returning to Rwanda in 2010 to run for president, she was arrested and sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison, a sentence later increased to 15 years in an "absolutely unfair" trial. From prison, Ingabire has written a book that the MEP described as "educational" and "highly recommended reading to learn about all she suffered." Estaràs also recalled her participation in an official European Parliament mission to Rwanda in September 2016, within the framework of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, during which she unsuccessfully requested to visit Ingabire in prison. "It was a very difficult mission; the MEPs had their mobile phones confiscated and were subjected to unacceptable pressure," she emphasized. The MEP also warned that in 2025, Ingabire was arrested again despite being under house arrest, as part of a new legal process that "is once again riddled with injustices." She also highlighted that the European Parliament has adopted numerous resolutions on this case and that the last debate took place in September in Strasbourg, but insisted that, in her opinion, "it is not enough."

"I sincerely believe that more can and must be done. The international pressure must be felt by the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. He must know that the EU is watching and that this monumental injustice will not be allowed to go unpunished," Estaràs stated, while calling for continued political attention through resolutions and debates. Furthermore, she emphasized that in 2012 she was one of the MEPs who signed Victoire Ingabire's nomination for the Sakharov Prize, highlighting that her case symbolizes "a very long history of human rights violations." The European Parliament has adopted repeated resolutions in recent years condemning Ingabire's political persecution, denouncing the "lack of judicial guarantees" in Rwanda and demanding her release, as well as "respect for fundamental rights and political pluralism in the country."