Former Commander of Rwanda's Presidential Guard Dies in Custody Twelve Years After Arrest

Tom Byabagamba, the retired colonel who once led Rwanda's presidential guard and served as a personal bodyguard to President Paul Kagame, has died behind bars more than a decade after he was detained, his death announced on Wednesday. He was 59 years old.

Byabagamba rose through the ranks of Rwanda's military to command the elite unit tasked with protecting the head of state, a position that placed him in close proximity to Kagame before his fortunes reversed dramatically. He spent his final years imprisoned, cut off almost entirely from the outside world.

His troubles began in 2014, when authorities arrested him alongside his brother-in-law, Frank Rusagara, a retired brigadier-general who had earlier held the post of secretary-general at the defence ministry. Both men were accused of spreading rumours and tarnishing the image of the country and its government — charges that drew immediate scrutiny from human rights organisations, which viewed the prosecutions as part of a broader pattern of repression against dissenting voices.

Col Byabagamba rejected the accusations throughout his trial, insisting they had been invented. He maintained that denial until his death, never wavering from the position that the case against him was fabricated.

News of his passing has left his relatives searching for answers. His brother, David Himbara, told the BBC Great Lakes service that the family still does not know what killed him, explaining that no one had been permitted to visit him during all the years he spent in detention. The lack of information about his health and circumstances in custody has deepened the family's anguish.

In 2016, a military court found Byabagamba guilty and handed down a 21-year prison term. That sentence was later trimmed to 15 years following an appeal. Rusagara received a 20-year sentence at the same time, sealing the downfall of two decorated officers who had once stood among the most trusted figures in Rwanda's security establishment.

Rusagara did not live to see release either. He died in prison in March of last year, prompting Human Rights Watch to describe his passing as the lonely death of a general. According to the rights group, his relatives had not heard his voice since 2014, shortly before his arrest. Authorities told the family that he had been suffering from cancer.

The convictions of both men stemmed from what Human Rights Watch characterised as a deeply flawed legal process, one marred by serious allegations of torture and witness tampering. The group's assessment has fuelled longstanding concerns that Rwanda's courts are used not to deliver justice but to punish those perceived as disloyal to the ruling establishment.

Advocacy organisation Freedom Now also weighed in on the cases previously, condemning the pair's imprisonment as arbitrary and asserting that their treatment breached international law. Such criticisms have done little to alter the trajectory of the two men's lives, both of which ended in confinement.

Their fates fit into a wider picture that rights groups have painted of Kagame's Rwanda, where political opposition is restricted and critics both inside the country and overseas face silencing. Government opponents, journalists and even artists have died in custody or fled abroad over the years, fuelling international debate over the true state of freedom in a nation often praised for its stability and economic recovery.

Col Byabagamba leaves behind a wife and two sons, who now join the growing list of Rwandan families left without explanations for how their loved ones died in state custody.