Rwandan man sought in connection with ex-spy chief's death

Undated photo taken in Kigale, Rwanda, of Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda's
former spy chief who was found dead, possibly strangled, in a hotel in
South Africa, police said Thursday Jan 2 2014. (AP Photo)
Ray Faure, The Associated Press
Published Friday, January 3, 2014 8:22AM EST
Last Updated Friday, January 3, 2014 11:39AM EST
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A Rwandan man was reportedly being
sought Friday by South African police in the death of former Rwandan
spymaster Patrick Karegeya whose body was discovered in a plush
Johannesburg hotel on New Year's Day.
According to the opposition Rwandan National Congress coalition and
the local New Age newspaper, the man was the last person to be seen
with Karegeya. However, police would not confirm nor deny it, saying
they were chasing up several leads.
Members of the Rwandan opposition claim Karegeya was assassinated at
the behest of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
The New Age newspaper quoted Karegeya's nephew David Batenga as saying
that he and Karegeya had picked up a Rwandan man at a light-rail
station on Sunday and taken him to the Michelangelo Towers Hotel in
the plush Johannesburg suburb of Sandton. Karegeya was found dead in
the man's hotel room on Wednesday.
Theogene Rudasingwa, Washington-based co-ordinator of the Rwandan
National Congress, said in a telephone interview with the Associated
Press Thursday: "We have been told the guy who was last seen with
Patrick was from Rwanda, a Rwandan whom Patrick knew who used to go to
Rwanda and come back. I think he pretended to be Patrick's friend."
Batenga said he had left the men after a few hours, and tried to call
Karegeya on his cellphone on Tuesday evening but had received no
response. The police were alerted when Karegeya's phone was still
switched off the following morning, the newspaper reported.
The name of the Rwandan national reportedly being sought by police was
among the names of seven people claimed in a blog run by Rwandan
dissidents to belong to a hit squad sent to South Africa to eliminate
Karegeya. The blog said its information came from informers.
The special police investigation force, the Hawks, says it is making
progress in the investigation into what they call the murder of
Karegeya. Police suspect he might have been strangled. His neck was
swollen and a rope and bloodied towel were found.
"We are exploring all avenues," Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko
told The Associated Press.
Karegeya, the former head of Rwanda's external intelligence service,
had been living in exile in South Africa for more than five years
after having a falling out with Kagame.
Rudasingwa described Karegeya's death as an assassination that fit a
pattern of attacks against prominent opponents of Kagame. The Rwandan
government has vehemently denied it targets opponents for
assassination.
Gunmen also twice tried to kill Kagame's former chief of army staff,
Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, while he was living in exile in
Johannesburg in 2010. Nyamwasa told The Associated Press in 2012 that
Kagame has hunted him and other dissidents around the world, "using
hired killer squads."
In a brief telephone interview with AP on Friday, he was reluctant to
say who he believed was behind the killing of his friend and former
colleague, Karegeya.
"We are not sure. It's too early to say. We're still busy piecing all
the information together. I believe we should wait for the outcome of
the police investigation before commenting on the matter," Nyamwasa
said.
Karegeya told an AP journalist a month ago that his work organizing
the opposition to Kagame was risky and could cost him his life. He
also said his daughter's Rwandan passport was revoked on Kagame's
orders while she was trying to leave Uganda, where she grew up in
exile, and that Kagame blocked his own quest for work with the United
Nations.
The Rwandan government vehemently denies targeting dissidents, and
Rwandan High Commissioner Vincent Karega told local broadcaster eNCA
on Thursday that talk of assassination is an "emotional reaction and
opportunistic way of playing politics." He urged people to wait for
the police report in South Africa, which has one of the world's
highest murder rates.
Kagame has long been accused of extra-territorial killings, including
ones committed when Karegeya was the feared boss of Rwanda's external
security agency.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/world/rwandan-man-sought-in-connection-with-ex-spy-chief-s-death-1.1616231
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SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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