Former Rwandan army chief General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa speaks after a court convicted four men for trying to kill him, in Kagiso, outside Johannesburg, yesterday.
AFP/Pretoria
A South African court yesterday sentenced four men each to eight years in prison for trying to murder a Rwandan general, months after he fell out with President Paul Kagame.
Magistrate Stanley Mkhari found three Tanzanians and one Rwandan guilty of a “politically motivated” plot to kill General Kayumba Nyamwasa in June 2010.
“After serving your sentence, you will be declared prohibited immigrants... you must be repatriated back to you respective countries,” said the magistrate.
Mkhari had concluded that the bid to assassinate Nyamwasa “emanated from a certain group of people from Rwanda”.
Nyamwasa fled to South Africa in February 2010.
The ex-general was shot and wounded as South Africa hosted the World Cup, in what Pretoria described as an attack by foreign “security operatives”.
Since that first attack, Nyamwasa has survived three other attempts on his life.
“I am convinced that ordinary law-abiding citizens in this country are sick and tired of the ongoing and senseless killings of foreign nationals based on political reasons,” said the magistrate.
Nyamwasa said he was targeted because of his claims that Kagame ordered the shooting down of a plane that carried president Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994. This set off a genocide during which members of the Hutu ethnic majority killed around 800,000 of the Tutsi minority in three months.
Kagame is revered as a hero by many both in his country and abroad for his role in ending the Rwandan genocide. But human rights groups have long accused his government of being behind hits on Kagame’s critics who have sought political asylum abroad.
Kigali has denied any links with the killings. Those jailed are Rwandan national Amani Uriwane, together with Tanzanians Hassan Mohamedi Nduli, Sady Abdou and Hemedi Dengengo Sefu.
Six men in all - three Rwandans and three Tanzanians - were put on trial for the failed plot to kill Nyamwasa, a former member of Kagame’s inner circle. The other two were acquitted.
Ex-general Nyamwasa has been given asylum in South Africa, but his presence has also caused diplomatic headaches for the host country.
Spain and France are both seeking to extradite him for an alleged role in the 1994 genocide. Rwanda also wants to bring him home to serve a 24-year prison sentence after a military court tried him in absentia on charges of desertion, defamation and threatening state security.
He furthermore faces terrorism charges for allegedly masterminding grenade attacks in Kigali in the run-up to Rwanda’s 2010 presidential elections.
