The South Africa National Prosecuting Authority has issued warrants of arrest for two Rwandese nationals accused of murdering Rwanda’s former head of intelligence, Col Patrick Karegeya, six years ago.
Karegeya, who had sought refuge in South Africa, was found strangled in a Sandton hotel room on December 31 2013.
According to a statement issued on Monday, September 9, 2019, by a family lawyer, NPA is also in the process of applying for the extradition of the suspects. The NPA will apply to Interpol for the issuing of “Red Notices” for the suspects.
“South African authorities have issued an arrest warrant for two of the four alleged murderers of an exiled Rwandese ex-spy and critic of President Paul Kagame who was killed in a Johannesburg hotel in 2014,” advocate Gerrie Nel said in a statement.
“South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority is also applying for the extradition of two other suspects of Rwandan descent,” he added.
“We welcome the current steps and hope the NPA will continue with the process keenly. AfriForum’s private prosecution unit and the family of the deceased will closely monitor the process,” AfriForum said.
Karegeya was the head of external intelligence in Rwanda for around a decade before being demoted to army spokesperson. He was later arrested and jailed. He was stripped of the rank of colonel in 2006 and went into exile in 2007.
Once in South Africa, Karegeya became a fierce critic of Kagame. He branded the Rwandese leader a dictator and alleged having first-hand knowledge of the state killing of dissidents abroad. He would help to set up an opposition movement, the Rwandese National Congress from South Africa.
The Rwandan government has denied any involvement or wrongdoing but Kagame’s comments at the time suggested he may have been involved.
According to Human Rights Watch many other former supporters of Paul Kagame have been the targets of attacks and threats in recent years.
On Tuesday 22nd January, judge Mashiane Mathopa of Randburg High Court, ordered the South African police investigators to explain “what, if any, steps were taken to arrest the Rwandese suspects, since their whereabouts and their identity are known,” reported the Globe and Mail’s Geoffrey York. He gave them two weeks to comply with his ruling. Holding that police investigations link the suspects to the Rwandese government, the judge further held that the inquest into Karegeya’s death, requested by the prosecutors, does not enjoy “public confidence” and would be “premature” at a time when key evidence was still not completed, and nothing was done to arrest the suspects.” The family lawyer, Gerrie Nel, had earlier argued, and rightly so, that the prosecution could instead file criminal charges.
The first striking issue here was why South African prosecution requested an inquest yet the issues of facts and issues at law were glaringly clear from South African police’s investigations as it clearly emerged from that day’s ruling.
