Rwanda has arrested a newspaper editor on charges of genocide denial and stirring ethnic hatred less than a month ahead of August's presidential election, police said on Saturday.
Agnes Uwimana, who has already served a one-year jail term for inciting ethnic divisions and defamation, was arrested Thursday evening following the publication of an article comparing President Paul Kagame to Hitler, said police spokesman Eric Kayiranga.
"There are four charges. They are inciting hatred in public, genocide denial, discrimination and sectarianism. She has been warned several times and she refused to change," Kayiranga said.
Two other critical newspapers were suspended in April on similar charges. Rights groups and major donors have in recent weeks expressed concerns about the increasingly repressive environment ahead of the presidential poll.
In June, another Rwandan journalist critical of the government was shot dead outside his home after writing a story linking Rwandan security services to the alleged assassination attempt on a dissident general in self-imposed exile in South Africa.
Kagame's administration strongly denies being behind either shooting.
"Once again, Rwandan authorities invoke national security and the legacy of the 1994 genocide to silence one of the few dissenting voices in the shrinking independent Rwandan press," said Mohamed Keita from New York-Based media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists.