Earlier this week I linked to some news about the American law professor Peter Erlinder, who while working in defense of a political prisoner and opposition leader in Rwanda was himself jailed on a specious charge of denying the 1994 genocide.  His situation appears to be rapidly worsening, as now the Rwandan authorities have claimed that he made an attempt on his own life by taking pills, and are now set to charge with the crime of attempted suicide.  However the defense team for Erlinder was never informed about the attempted suicide, and his brother has called this claim “ridiculous.”  Other sources are reporting that he took a small overdose in order to get moved from the prison cell to a hospital.  Under these kinds of atrocious conditions, there are concerns that Erlinder could be facing abuse from the Rwandan prison authorities.