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Rwanda now makes plans to fight all indictments by Spanish court

Saturday July 04 2015
EAKarakeDemoII

Demonstrators call for the release of Rwanda’s intelligence chief General Karenzi Karake outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London on June 25, 2015. AFP PHOTO | JUSTIN TALLIS

Rwanda is working on a plan to challenge indictments by a Spanish judge against 40 senior Rwandan military officials following the recent arrest of the country’s head of intelligence and security services in London.

Even as the government called off protests outside the British High Commission in Kigali, where Rwandans were demanding the release of Lt Gen Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, it said it will now use the court case against the intelligence chief to fight the February 2008 indictments.

Rwanda’s Justice Minister Johnston Busingye told The EastAfrican on Friday that they will seek to disprove the legitimacy of the indictments.

“The way forward for us now is to challenge this injustice in court. We trust that the British courts will do what is needful. We will also do our best not only to prove Gen Karenzi Karake’s innocence, but also challenge the grounds on which he was arrested,” said Mr Busingye, who also doubles up as the Attorney General.

An internal document circulated to senior government officials, and seen by The EastAfrican, indicates that Rwanda intends to challenge the legitimacy of the Spanish indictments on the grounds that they had been overruled by another judge in the Spanish National High Court.

The arrest of Gen Karake on a European arrest warrant stemming from indictments issued by Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles sparked outrage, with Kigali condemning the UK government for detaining the Rwandan official who has diplomatic privileges.

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READ: What next after Rwandan General’s arrest in UK?

The Spanish judge accuses Gen Karake and 39 others of carrying out massacres after the 1994 genocide in revenge killings targeting Hutus. Rwanda vehemently rejects these accusations that target senior military officials who were members of the Rwanda Patriotic Front Inkotanyi, which took power in 1994.

President Paul Kagame castigated the UK for what he termed as “absolute arrogance and contempt” in arresting the 54-year-old general, who remains in the UK on bail pending an extradition hearing set for October 29 and 30.

READ: Kagame slams UK, Spain over arrest of spy chief

It is understood that the Spanish judge and interest groups are already pushing the UK government to extradite Gen Karake to Spain to face trial; Rwanda has vowed to fight the planned extradition in the UK court.

Kigali is currently gathering evidence to use in the case in which Rwanda will be represented by a group of powerful lawyers led by Cherie Booth, the wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Regional observers say that if Gen Karake is extradited, it would present an opportunity for Rwanda to ultimately challenge the indictments.

“If Karake is extradited to Spain — which is a strong possibility — this will mean a detailed legal examination of the evidence against him in the Spanish courts,” said Phil Clark, a UK-based scholar who specialises in the Great Lakes region and the Genocide against the Tutsi.

Dr Clark said that Human Rights Watch and other observers have previously criticised aspects of the Spanish arrest warrants for their lack of strong evidence against Rwandan officials, and the fact that 40 officials have been named in a fairly slapdash manner.

“It may be in Rwanda’s interests for Gen Karake to directly challenge the Spanish charges in court, as Rose Kabuye did in a similar case in France in 2008, and highlight the weaknesses of the Spanish case,” he added.

Similar case

In November 2006, French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière issued an arrest warrant for nine people, including Rtd Lieutenant Colonel Kabuye. She was serving as the chief of protocol for President Kagame in November 2008 when she was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on charges that were lifted in March 2009.

According to Mr Busingye, the extradition can also be challenged on diplomatic grounds, considering that Gen Karake was travelling on a diplomatic passport and on official duty.

It was feared that the arrest would spark a bitter diplomatic row between Rwanda and the UK, which remains Rwanda’s biggest development partner. These fears have since been brushed aside, with Mr Busingye saying that the co-operation between Rwanda and Britain cannot be “narrowed down” to this legal issue.

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