Revealed: Suella Braverman's trips to Rwanda to teach government lawyers

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Suella Braverman lectured Rwandan government lawyers on trips supported by President Paul Kagame, The Independentcan reveal.

The House Secretary visited the country in 2008 and 2010, then co-founded a charity organization that cooperated with Kigali and trained lawyers currently working in Rwanda's Ministry of Justice.

< p>At the time, she suggested the country did not have a 'properly functioning legal system', but told MPs this week that Rwanda was a 'fundamentally safe and secure country' suitable for receiving asylum seekers from the UK.

Ms Braverman was a lawyer and Conservative election candidate during her visits to Rwanda and has not made the work public since being elected to parliament in 2015.

Care4Calais, which is one of the charities taking legal action against the Rwanda deal, said she needed to be "fully transparent" about her past activities after being tasked with implementing the £120m freeze reement.

Founder Clare Moseley said: "The fact that the Minister of Interior who dreams of deporting the victims of war, torture and human rights violations to Rwanda has had ties to the Kagame regime serious concerns.

“Braverman says Rwanda is a safe country as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has raised concerns about the country’s human rights record and the United Nations Agency for Refugees presented compelling evidence that refugees will not be safe there.

"Suella Braverman and the Conservative Party must be fully transparent about their dealings with the Rwandan authorities."

Writing in 2011 under her maiden name, Suella Fernandes, Ms Braverman said she was part of a team of volunteer attorneys who "taught advocacy, legal writing, negotiation, and substantive law to judges, government attorneys, community justice attorneys, and law students."

“I also saw for the first time how a functioning legal system is essential for development,” added the future interior minister. “The rule of law is a basic ingredient that allows prosperity to flourish."

Ms Braverman traveled with Project Umubano, which was described on her now-defunct website as "the Conservative Party's social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone".

More than a dozen serving MPs and future MPs have t participated in the same trip in 2008, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Minister of Justice Damian Hinds, Minister of Education Robert Halfon and the Select Committee of Defense ...