In a ruling on Thursday, a South African judge said the murder of Rwandan dissident Patrick Karegeya was committed by “known” persons. Instead of holding a full inquest, he ordered the case to be handed over to prosecutors, who will consider whether to issue arrest warrants.
Mr. Karegeya, a former Rwandan spy chief and top aide to Mr. Kagame who later had a falling out with the Rwandan President, was strangled to death in a luxury hotel room in Johannesburg on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
Justice Mashiane Mathopa made his ruling on Thursday after receiving a new summary of the police investigation, which concluded that the main suspects in the Karegeya murder and several other attempted assassinations were “directly linked to the involvement of the Rwandan government.”
Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda’s former spy chief, was found dead in a hotel on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
The police statement and judge’s ruling are further evidence supporting the findings of a 2014 investigation by The Globe and Mail, which documented the role of the Rwandan government in plots to kill Rwandan dissidents in South Africa and elsewhere in the world.
The suspects in the Karegeya murder fled from South Africa “immediately after the commission of the crime” and are still in Rwanda today, which makes it “very difficult” to trace them, the police statement said.
Although there is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa, the family of Mr. Karegeya wants the South African authorities to issue warrants for the arrest of the suspects, which could allow the suspects to be detained if they travel outside Rwanda. The ruling by the judge will add to this pressure, making it clear to South African prosecutors that they must consider the arrest-warrant option.
In his summary of the police investigation, Lieutenant-Colonel Kwena Motlhamme hinted at political interference that may have stalled the prosecution of the main suspects.
He disclosed that the police investigators had been summoned to South Africa’s parliament in 2014, where they were questioned by MPs about the role of the Rwandan government.
South Africa later expelled several Rwandan diplomats, accusing them of involvement in “organized criminal networks” and plots to assassinate Mr. Karegeya and another prominent dissident. Relations between the two countries were frosty for years.
(The Globe and Mail)
