Alberta Mountie found not guilty of using database to help Rwanda

A Mountie in Alberta, RCMP Const. Eli Ndatuje, has been found not guilty of using a police database to assist the country of Rwanda. Ndatuje, 39, was on trial at the Red Deer courthouse after being charged under the Criminal Code and the Security of Information Act for allegedly illegally using the police database. Ndatuje, who fled war-torn Uganda as a teenager, was arrested in February 2024 by the RCMP’s federal policing team.

The alleged "foreign actor" involved in the case was identified as Rwanda. During the trial, Ndatuje's lawyer, Robb Beeman, testified that his client had contacted the Rwandan High Commission twice for innocent purposes. The first contact was in April 2022 to clear up confusion over his wife's travel documents, and the second was when Ndatuje was contacted by a friend at the Rwandan High Commission who was worried about the disappearance of a housekeeper at the Ottawa residence of the Rwandan ambassador.

Beeman stated that Ndatuje checked the police database on his own initiative to see if anyone had reported the housekeeper missing, but found no record of it. The housekeeper was later found unharmed.

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