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The family of former badbadinated Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya was celebrated on Thursday after a South African magistrate said the identity of four suspects was known and the police said they were "directly related" to the Rwandan government.
At the end of a 20-minute investigation in Johannesburg, Magistrate Mashiane Mathopa stated that a prima facie case had to be established and he referred the case to the South African National Prosecution Authority (NPA). ). Karegeya was found strangled in a hotel room in Johannesburg in January 2014.
A written testimony from the South African Special Investigation Unit, the Hawks, was presented as part of the investigation. The magistrate had asked the Hawks to explain the measures taken to ensure the arrest of the four suspects over the past five years.
In a statement, Hawks investigator, Kwena Motlhamme, said that Karegeya's murder and several attacks in Johannesburg against the army chief of staff in exile in Rwanda, the general Kayumba Nyamwasa "were directly related to the participation of the Rwandan government".
Revealing that he had been summoned by the South African parliament to inform his security committee at the time, Mr. Motlhamme said that relations between South Africa and Rwanda were thus put in place. under pressure, the two countries withdrawing their ambbadadors. Rwanda and South Africa have not signed extradition treaties, he said. "These facts made it impossible to find the suspects in their country of origin," he said.
The lawyer representing Karegeya's family said that he found the police statement "very weak" and that he had never heard of a parliamentary committee that would have been informed of an investigation into a previous murder. . "The only conclusion we can draw is that there must be political interference … We said the first time that it was a process abuse. The court said we were right, "said Gerrie Nel.
Leah, Patrick Karegeya's wife, at the hearing. Photography: Jhua-nine Wyrley-Birch / Michela Wrong
Karegeya and Nyamwasa were formerly senior members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), who took power in Kigali in 1994 after the genocide in which nearly a million people, most of them Tutsis, to the minority, were killed. They fled after separating separately with the president, Paul Kagame, and created an opposition party in exile, the National Congress of Rwanda.
Thursday's decision came less than a fortnight after Rwanda celebrated the 25th anniversary of the genocide at a solemn ceremony attended by world dignitaries. "Rwanda has become a family again," said Kagame, lighting a flame of hope.
Human rights organizations have baderted that no dissent was allowed in modern day Rwanda and that Karegeya and Nyamwasa were only the most prominent targets in the world. a concerted campaign of killings, arrests and disappearances among politicians, civil society activists and journalists inside the country and abroad.
Karegeya's widow, Leah, who traveled from her home in Washington to make her decision, pointed to the long delay in conducting a judicial inquiry as evidence of interference at the highest level of the judicial process. "We know our government and how it works. Our government has never stopped intervening.
David Batenga, Karegeya's nephew, said it marks the beginning of a process to bring his uncle's murderers to justice. "We will fight. We intend to go to the end, "he said.
Nel, a former public prosecutor known for his involvement in the Oscar Pistorius case, said he would give the NPA three months to react and that he would consider launching private prosecutions. Two years ago, Nel resigned as prosecutor to pursue private prosecutions on behalf of AfriForum, a lobby group for minority rights.
The Rwandan High Commissioner to South Africa, Vincent Karega, did not respond to requests for comment but, in the past, Kigali has always denied any involvement in the killing of Karegeya and in the context of four badbadination attempts against the life of Nyamwasa. "the terrorists".
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