Dear Sir/Madam, Below is an account of our involvement with a clearing firm called Coimex, who are wrongly pursuing

us in Criminal Court over libel charges.

Background to the case

We moved to Kigali in April, and decided to buy a car from someone who was working at the American Embassy. We paid for the car in full and obtained a bill of sale and all necessary documents. However, there were diplomatic plates on the car, and we needed to have them changed to IT plates.

On the 22nd of June we approached COIMEX and asked them to take control of the customs and duties issues related to our car, they inspected our documents and claimed that everything would be ready by Thursday the 24th of June.

The following day we were asked to provide further documentation, and the deadline for completion was moved back to Friday the 25th.

Again, the following day we were asked for more documentation and the deadline was moved again to the following week.

By Tuesday the 29th of June we had already been with COIMEX for a week and made no progress. We asked to speak to a manager and were introduced to Manu Musekera. He told us that he needed RWF 420,000, and he could get us our car by Thursday the 1st of July. We pointed out to him that this was a public holiday; he told us that this didn't matter and guaranteed us the car on that date. We also asked him for a breakdown of the costs for the RWF 420,000, and he promised to provide us with one. On Wednesday the 30th of June and Thursday 1st of July we repeatedly asked Manu to send us details of why he needed RWF420,000, which he failed to do. Also on Thursday the 1st of July Manu informed us that he was unable to fulfil his promise to make the car available to us, but promised again that everything would be ready on the morning of Friday the 2nd of July.

On Friday the 2nd of July, after calling COIMEX to ensure that they were doing something, Manu informed us that he was unable to complete the paperwork on that day because the US embassy car park was closed in the afternoon - although he had told us that we could have it in the morning- we would have to wait again, until the 5th. By this point we had made so many promises by COIMEX that had been unfulfilled, we decided to try to get the car ourselves, for which we would need our documents.

We took a taxi to COIMEX's office and asked for our documents. At first we were refused, but we insisted and eventually our file was produced. On our way out of the building Manu and a colleague of his tried to physically prevent us from leaving, and were intimidating and angry throughout - it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. We had intended to try to get the car ourselves, and then go back to COIMEX if we were unable to. However, this incident in Manu's office had felt so threatening that at this point we decided to try any route other than COIMEX. Manu's parting words to us showed that he was very aware that we were going to try other means to get our vehicle licensed, and would no longer be doing business with them.

After asking for advice at the revenue authority we approached SDV Transami and started the whole process again. SDV Transami acted with professionalism and kept us informed of the progress. They told us that all the paperwork would be completed by Friday the 16th, at which point we could use our vehicle.

Customs Hearing
We had been expecting to hear from COIMEX at any point, as they had both of our addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. We had asked for an invoice and thought that they would contact us about the work they wanted us to pay for, and we would have been glad to discuss any costs that they had incurred during our time with them. However, the next time we heard from them was on Friday the 16th of July - two weeks after we had last spoken. They had intercepted our documents from Customs, in full knowledge that we no longer wanted to use their services. They also picked up the new set of paperwork that SDV Transami had filed - effectively, we could do nothing until they released our documents. That same morning, Manu Musekera visited the British High Commission and tried to make a complaint about my actions although I am unclear about the nature of his complaint, as I had had no contact with him for 2 weeks.

I spoke to Manu later that morning, and his attitude was of arrogance and contempt. He was demanding that we pay him an as yet undisclosed amount before he would return our papers. I visited SDV Transami to discuss my options with them, and after speaking to a Customs official there I went to COIMEX's office to get our documents back. The customs official at SDV had confirmed the fact that the documents were our property and that Coimex had no legal right to refuse to return them. Everyone in the Coimex office agreed that the documents were our property, but they were under instruction not to give them to me until I had paid an invoice which they had just made up.

I told them that we could talk about payment once I was in possession of my property, but the staff were unable to help without Manu Musekera's permission. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the office at the time and he refused to answer my calls.

At this point, I posted a message (Appendix 1) on Kigalilife, a small group about consumer issues in Kigali. The post expressed my dissatisfaction with the service I had received from Coimex. Manu Musekera responded to this post on the same bulletin board with his own, fictitious version of events (Appendix 2). In his response, Manu Musekera published our full names, e-mail addresses and the name of our employer all information with no relevance to the accusations.

Tamorah contacted Manu by e-mail asking for a considered, positive solution to the situation (Appendix 3). Manu refused (Appendix 4). She then tried to reason with Manus co-manager, Joseph, again we were trying to find a positive solution to the situation. (Appendix 5). Joseph was completely uninterested in the truth of the matter, and dismissed our appeal to solve these difficulties between ourselves.

Following this, we approached the Customs department and spoke to the commissioner of customs, Innocent Safari. He arranged for an informal hearing to be held between ourselves, Coimex and SDV Transami to resolve the issue. At the hearing, Manu Musekera and his colleague Joseph continued to attempt an attitude of intimidation, with Joseph directing an angry, shouted tirade at Tamorah, who was sitting next to him.

The hearing lasted 2 hours, and at the end it was decided that Coimex must hand the documents over before demanding payment. The amount owed to Coimex was

discussed, and we agreed to pay them for the services they had belatedly completed before we took the matter into our own hands. We highlighted the fact that we had never refused to pay for their services, but had only refused to pay for the release of our documents. At the time of the hearing, our main points were as follows; We were disappointed with consistently broken promises from COIMEX. We were concerned about handing over RWF 420,000 with no justification. Justification never came. We were, at all times, willing to pay for their services, and requested invoices from them many times. They only provided us with one once they had taken and withheld our papers. We felt that Manu Musekera was trying to extort us. We believed that the issue of payment to COIMEX was separate from the legality of their hold on our papers, and would have preferred to approach it as such.

We were satisfied with the results of the hearing, and the Commissioner ensured us that the whole debacle was over. He made Coimex promise not to interfere with the process any further, and we all went our own ways. Once our documents had been returned SDV Transami could re-apply for clearance of the vehicle. This was necessary as Coimex had collected SDV Transamis original request for clearance from the customs office, and then conveniently lost it from the file. The next day we completed the payment to Coimex for the services they had provided.

Libel Case
Approximately a month after this, on Monday 23rd August, I received a summons from the Criminal Investigations Department. They could not tell me what it was about over the phone, so I had to wait until the meeting, on Thursday 26 th , to find out the charges. Attending the meeting were myself, Michael Bibby (Country Director, British Council), Robert (Security adviser, British High Commission) and Maurice (Criminal Investigations Department). In the meeting it was revealed that Coimex were pressing criminal charges of defamation against me, for the e-mail I posted on Kigalilife. I made a statement expressing my regret that the issue had reached such a level, and also that I had already ensured that the e-mail in question had been removed from the public forum.

After the meeting Robert approached the lawyers from Coimex and made an offer for me to publicly apologise for the e-mail. They refused, and are insisting on pressing the case. I understand that it is their right to do so, would never stand in the way of the justice system and have been willing to help the NPPA and the court system from the start. However, Coimex have been pushing the NPPA to arrest me, making false claims about my willingness to partake in the hearings. They clearly understood that I intended to visit the NPPA on the morning of the 20/10/2010, and yet they told the NPPA that I had no intention of ever appearing, and pressured them to jump several steps in the due procedure for summoning a defendant. These blatant lies resulted in the NPPA releasing a warrant for the police to physically escort me to the courthouse to make a statement. I discovered this at the NPPA on the 20/10/2010 the date I had arranged to attend from the beginning. Fortunately the police had not yet wasted their time and resources to escort me there. At the time of posting the e-mail in question I had no intention of damaging the livelihoods of those at Coimex, only to warn others of the horrible experience I had had and hopefully motivate Coimex to stop using such immoral business practices. I have read and re-read the e-mail in question, and understand that it could be viewed as libellous if the claims I make in it were not true, which they are. For a statement to be libellous, it must be false, but presented as the truth. Blackmail The advice we received from customs made it clear that the documents in Coimexs possession were our property; Coimex knew this and would not return them until we had given them money. From Manus e-mail to Tamorah once you pay the due, you will get your document..thats it....!. Note that he accepts the documents are our property. Incompetent They repeatedly failed to deliver on their promises. They tried to charge us 420.000RWF unnecessarily. Dishonest They lied in their version of events which they presented to the Commissioner of Customs. They lied to us about sending us an invoice. They lied to us about how much tax we should be paying. They lied to us about when their work would be complete. They lied to the NPPA about my willingness to attend a hearing. Bullies Manus attitude in his office towards us was clearly intimidating. Manus attitude on the phone to me was meant to be intimidating. Manu approaching the British High Commission to complain about me is intimidation tactics. Refusal to return our property, and therefore release our car, was meant to intimidate us into giving them money. Josephs attitude towards Tamorah in the meeting with the commissioner was clearly intimidating. In an e-mail from Manu to Tamorah he states I think with this, you are not afraid anymore.......Should be my turn to be afraid not to be paid, showing clearly that he had previously expected us to be personally scared

of him, and that all he wants now is money. The whole attitude which Coimex is now taking towards this case is clearly meant to intimidate and harass us. Also note that the wording of the sentence They are incompetent at best, and dishonest bullies at worst states that they are somewhere on the scale between the two, not necessarily both. Therefore, if you agree that they were at least incompetent, the statement is true and therefore not libellous. In the post I also say do yourselves a favour and avoid COIMEX at all costs. This is not a libellous statement, as it is advice and makes no false claims. The rest of the text is a succinct account of our involvement with Coimex. In addition, most of the replies to my post on Kiglilife were of the opinion that there were two sides to every story, and that my post should be ignored. After this, the debate was closed by the moderators of Kigalilife as it was no longer interesting. I agreed, and ensured that the original post had been removed. Coimex undertook to re-open the debate with their response (which included our personal details). They clearly exacerbated the situation and have caused more harm to their business through their subsequent handling of the case than my small e-mail ever could.

Appendix 1

We have recently been trying to get our car registered in Rwanda, and made the mistake of contacting a clearing agency called COIMEX. COIMEX have been incompetent at best, and dishonest bullies at worst. Currently they are with-holding vital documents of ours until we pay them a random amount of money based on a job they never completed. As the documents are ours, this can only be classed as blackmail. Please, do yourselves a favour and avoid COIMEX at all costs - there are many other companies you can go through.

Appendix 2
Dear Madam Tamorah and Dan. We have received your file on 22 June 2010, and during the preparation of letter of guarantee to customs, you made a mistake on names since the letter was made under British council instead to be under your names. This was returned to you the next day for correction. We got back the corrected letter from you on Friday,24th . In the meantime, since it was your first time to declare your goods through Rwandan customs, we had to get the Tax Identification Number (TIN) for you, which was obtained from RRA on Monday 28th, then we proceeded this with all attachment document in customs exemption department the same day. We have got the exoneration letter on Tuesday, 29th. It was possible to finalize all customs formalities by Thursday 1st July, unfortunately this was a holiday. Friday, 2nd July, we asked you to bring the car a customs parking for checking, unfortunately you failed to do it, as the car was in parking of US Embassy and every Friday, the mission is open till 1pm. If we had the car at that moment, we would have ended your declaration, registration card and get number plate for your car. At this stage, our job was well done and without delay. Although it was well done, on Friday 2nd July,I was surprised to see yourself and your husband in our office, threaten us and take by force all documents for clearance, when we should keep in our archive some copies of the work already done. We did not refused to give you the document for your car, only the problem was that you took the folder yourself by force without leaving any copies and paying any single money for what had been done until there. Also, i would tell you that i have not appreciated the way you have taken this folder, it was purely a lack of respect. I was deeply shocked. Now, we heard that you decided to handover the file to another clearing agency ( SDV), and you have applied for a second exoneration letter for the same vehicle ( signed on 14th )while you had in the file the first and valid one ( signed 2nd July ), and you have used illegally our requesting form for exoneration ( stamped and signed by coimex)without our authorization. We are kindly requesting you to take back to our office, the first letter of exoneration signed by commissioner on 2nd July for cancellation, and pay the invoice no 10200 which you have received from our office ( please find it again in attached documents).

The sooner that our request would be made, you will have your file. Thanking you for your understanding, Best regards, Manu Musekera Manager/Partner Coimex Kigali Tel 0755442020 coimex@rwanda1.com www.coimexllc.com

Appendix 3 Email from Tamorah Greenwood to Manu. Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 8:28 PM To: coimex@rwanda1.com Subject: a positive solution

Dear Manu, This has gotten out of hand and I know both of us have better things to do than to fight with each other. Let's put this behind us. I am afraid you were under the impression that you weren't going to be paid for services rendered and that is not the case. We have simply been asking for an invoice of services to be emailed to us.

Daniel and I do not agree with the sequence of events that you have outlined in your email to me, however, it would be pointless for us to argue about those details and email them to everyone. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Our documents which you collected from customs are our property and you would like to be reimbursed- let's help each other to find a positive solution. We will not get anywhere at the rate we are going currently.

The worst part is that other people are having to get involved which isn't good for any of us.

Please, talk to us and let's deal with this matter. Would tomorrow afternoon be okay for you?

Sincerely,

Tamorah

Appendix 4 E-mail exchange between Tamorah Greenwood and Manu Musekera. Dear Manu, Dear Tamorah, Sorry to come back to you message later, I was too busy the whole day.. This has gotten out of hand and I know both of us have better things to do than to fight with each other. Let's put this behind us. I am afraid you were under the impression that you weren't going to be paid for services rendered and that is not the case. We have simply been asking for an invoice of services to be emailed to us. I am surprised to read this : I am afraid you were under the impression that you weren't going to be paid for services rendered.... I think before writing this you should remember the text message your husband sent to me on Friday 16th at 12:42 Hi Manu. We have never received any e-mails from you or anyone else at COIMEX. Perhaps you have the wrong address. Use this one in the future. dpjl_j@Yahoo.co.uk Why not just give us the document and forget the whole thing? We will not be paying for it. All the best. Dan. Again, a copy of your invoice sent by Daniel under my offices door : Dear Manu, this is extortion I think with this, you are not afraid anymore.......Should be my turn to be afraid not to be paid, as this has been confirmed by your husband..Anyway, I believe that you will kindly pay us the due ( 88,500 Rwf, VAT included ) Daniel and I do not agree with the sequence of events that you have outlined in your email to me, however, it would be pointless for us to argue about those details and email them to everyone. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Our documents which you collected from customs are our property and you would like to be reimbursed- let's help each other to find a positive solution. We will not get anywhere at the rate we are going currently. Josephs comments was enough explanatory on this. And also, you have received my email on Friday 16th saying that once you pay the due, you will get your document..thats it....! The worst part is that other people are having to get involved which isn't good for any of us. I believe you are the ones who first posted on the forum kigalilife the unworthy sentences about our company targeting its destruction..Thus, do not regret it if we raise our voice to the relatives and concerned persons. And if it was you, you should do the same.

Please, talk to us and let's deal with this matter. Would tomorrow afternoon be okay for you? You have received our invoice of 88,500 RWF, VAT included. Just kindly pay it and take back the document for your else choice, and never mind...! IN SHORT, I THINK THIS IS A POSITIVE SOLUTION THAT YOU HAVE ASKED.

Sincerely, Sincerely Tamorah Manu

Appendix 5 Tamorah Greenwood to Joseph show details 20 Jul

Dear Joseph,

I was hoping to talk to you myself and that you could provide some form of reconciliation to this matter. However, I am somewhat disappointed to read this email and learn that you have made a decision about this case without hearing both sides.

Manu has put a great deal of energy into trying to make our lives difficult. I have sent him an email requesting a more amicable solution, as well as phoning him and going to his office, however he will not respond. In the beginning, all he needed to do was talk to us and send us an invoice of services rendered. I was asking him for weeks. It was not until this last week, after he intercepted our documents and demanded money for them that Robert from the High Commission and Mr. Bibby from the British Council insisted he provide us with an invoice, and he finally did: you can see the date and compare it with the first time we came to COIMEX. He has refused to speak to us directly, has gone out of his way to take our documents, he has demanded money without any verification as to what it's for, and has contacted our manager and discussed this issue with as many people as possible at the embassies. His behavior has been destructive and highly unnecessary. We feel as though Manu had already made our issue public by involving as many organizations as he could, instead of speaking to us. This hasnt been good business for any of us. We responded to the treatment Manu gave us. I would never want to compromise good, honest, hardworking people. However, that is not what we encountered when dealing with Manu. From his actions we have concluded that Manu shouldn't be trusted, and to leave COIMEX out of that. However, I encourage you to look at the service and treatment we have received from Manu and understand why we have developed these feelings towards your company. I still do hope that we will reach a resolution.

The current accounts of events that Manu is telling people are simply not true. One thing about the man, he is consistent. He has been consistently lying to us since I met him. Manu was demanding various amounts of money and not providing an invoice for the amounts, although he kept insisting that he was going to. Again, never would we expect services rendered without payment - we were simply asking for an invoice. Manu demanded 420,000 rwf for taxes, which we told him we are exempt from paying. He would not look into the matter or provide an invoice.

We spent two weeks taking taxis to COIMEX because more paperwork was needed and the phone calls were endless. (One time, I had to go there to give a photocopy of my passport, which is the folder, because the office couldnt photocopy it themselves). Of course, we provided the necessary documents, however we kept asking COIMEX to just give us a list so that we didn't need to keep returning. Manu kept insisting the paperwork would be ready tomorrow - tomorrow never came. He insisted it would be ready on Thursday, which was a holiday and we told him that probably wasn't possible he told us it was, and disappointed us again. Then he said Friday, but when we called him mid morning he still hadn't done anything - he had simply left it too late. This was after two weeks of trips back and forth to his office and all the phone calls.

He told us that he would go to where the vehicle was and sort out the plates. Our perception of how Manu was handling our account was that he kept telling us he was working on our case, but wasn't doing anything or at least communicating that he was. We went to the COIMEX office again to discuss sorting out the license plates. I told Manu that I wanted to take my documents so that I could see what progress I could make on my own, being that COIMEX said that they weren't capable of going any further at the moment because the vehicle couldnt be removed from the embassy. At some point in this conversation Manu became very aggressive. He moved closer to me and was standing within a hands distance of my face and was yelling. Then in Kinyarwanda he told an employee to come up from behind me and try to grab the documents out of my hands. All I saw was a man coming at me from behind. I couldn't even understand what he was saying, I was scared. I then asked them to calm down, demanded they not touch me and move back, and suggested we make a plan to sort out this paperwork. I told Manu that I could not do business with someone who behaves this way. His disorganization and inability to send a simple invoice or list of necessary paperwork was bad enough, but this kind of aggressive behavior cannot be tolerated. He told me to leave and said he didn't want to do business with us either. I had made it very clear to him why we did not want to do business with COIMEX under these circumstances and he understood. He did not say anything about a cancellation fee. As we left COIMEX that day, we had NO idea that COIMEX was in the final stage of customs operations or that Manu would be billing us later. That was lack of communication from Manus or a deliberate ploy - as he told us we were free to leave and that he had nothing further to discuss with us. (You can imagine our shock when we later heard this week that he had intercepted in our registration process and was demanding money.) We hadnt spoken to or heard from COIMEX in two weeks and were happily working with SDV.

After the last meeting with Manu we went to the Revenue Authority who told us to go to a different clearing agency. Amri suggested we go to SDV, who have been a positive experience for us. SDV had to reapply for some documents that were out of date and cancel the previous application. When those documents were completed, customs had two clearing agencies names and they called the first one. Manu knew that we had a new clearing agency, but went and collected all of the documents anyway, then notifying Robert that we had to pay him in order to get our documents

back. (Again, he wasnt even talking to us.) This is not an appropriate way to go about getting payment this is extortion and highly unprofessional.

As I have explained our experience with Manu and his poor customer service has led us to go elsewhere and to complain, however we never expected nor wanted this situation to escalate the way it has.

I agree with you that 80,000 rwf is not a lot of money for such dishonest and cruel actions on Manus behalf or for us to publicly shame a company who may be otherwise doing good business. It is a lot of money for an incomplete and unprofessional service. I dont think that Manu is as interested in the money as he is in being hurtful towards us. Why didnt he send us a bill ages ago when we were asking? Why didnt he tell us that we owed him money at our last meeting with him? Why did the bill only come after he had interfered with our registration process with SDV?

I do not want Manus actions to reflect badly on COIMEX any more than you do. I now realize that discussing it on a public forum about services was not a constructive action to take because there are good people and services available at COIMEX too. Manu responded just as harshly on Kigalilife criticizing us and using our names, as well as mentioning our employer, which has no relevance to the case. Its fair so say that neither one of us should be discussing this on Kigalilife or trying to involve lots of people/ organizations just for the sake of doing so.

Is there something you would like me to do to mitigate this situation? We are eager to come to a more peaceful, positive solution and to avoid any more public discussions of this mess.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Tamorah