Aimable Karasira, a former Rwandan academic who became an online critic of the Kigali government, died in prison on the day of his release, the prison administration announced Thursday, indicating that he had been hospitalized after a drug overdose.

"I last saw him on Monday as he was preparing to be released" after serving his sentence, "I learned of his death this (Thursday) morning," his lawyer Félicien Gashema told AFP, saying he was waiting for the autopsy report.

After teaching information technology at the University of Rwanda, Mr. Karasira launched a YouTube channel in 2011 in which he regularly attacked Rwandan authorities.

Shortly before his arrest in late May 2021, he had in a video accused President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of "fueling hatred" and questioned certain aspects of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi minority, a taboo subject in Rwanda.

Himself a survivor of the genocide, which was ended by the RPF's seizure of power, Aimable Karasira was sentenced on September 30, 2025, after more than four years of detention, to five years in prison for inciting division.

The prosecution had dropped the charges of genocide denial and justification of genocide, as well as those of illicit enrichment and money laundering.

Mr. Karasira "died in hospital," where he was "transported after ingesting a dose of medication higher than that prescribed by his doctor," the prison administration (RCS) announced in a statement, adding that it was awaiting "the medical report on the causes of death."

RCS spokesman Hillary Sengabo told local media that Mr. Karasira had "overdosed on his mental health medication shortly after being released, but while he was still on the prison premises" waiting to be picked up.

"Since he was returning home, we followed the procedure which provides for the return of his belongings, including his medication," he explained, indicating that Mr. Karasira had been taken to the hospital after falling into a "deep sleep."

Rwandan lawyer and political analyst Louis Gitinywa called for an "independent investigation", recalling several previous cases of unexplained deaths in custody.

Kizito Mihigo, a popular gospel musician and fierce critic of the government, died in February 2020 in a police cell, which at the time claimed he had committed suicide.

In 2021, Joshua Tuyishime, a rapper known as Jay Polly, died after being arrested at a party - which was prohibited during the Covid-19 lockdown - where narcotics were discovered.

Several YouTubers were arrested in 2021 for various reasons, some of whom are still in prison.

Credited with Rwanda's spectacular economic recovery since the genocide, Paul Kagame is also criticized for his repression of dissenting voices.