A Rwandan court has freed three journalists illegally detained for four years over alleged fake news.

Jean Damascene Mutuyimana, Niyonsenga Schadrack, and Jean Baptiste Nshimiyimana, all reporters for Iwacu TV, a YouTube channel, were taken into custody in October 2018 for allegedly stoking unrest and disseminating rumours.

The Committee to Protect Journalists stated that the Rwandan court denied the trio bail in the days preceding their trial.

Four years later, a judge on the panel decided that there was insufficient evidence to connect the journalists’ reporting to violence, and as a result, the journalists were exonerated.

“There is no evidence to prove that their publication incited violence,” VOA quoted Speciose Nyirabagande, one of the court’s three judges, to have said.

Mr Nshimiyimana asserted he was unfazed by his 48-month incarceration and would continue his line of profession after release.

“I am a journalist, and I was a journalist, and I will always be,” Mr Nshimiyimana told Reuters.

Despite praising the verdict, the lawyer for the three reporters, Jean-Paul Ibambe, criticised the prolonged detention.

“Imagine serving four years in preventive detention. The courts should be quickening the procedures instead of taking this long time,” Mr Ibambe told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, condemned the Rwandan government for not stopping the trial earlier.

“The relief at the acquittal of the three journalists is overshadowed by the court’s failure to stop this sham of a trial earlier,” Mr Mudge pointed out. “The fact a prosecution took place at all will send a chilling message to others who dare to exercise their right to free expression in Rwanda.”