Kagame ‘linked to spy chief killing’

The government of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was directly linked to the assassination of an exiled former spy chief in South Africa, a police investigation has concluded.

Colonel Patrick Karegeya was murdered by known hitmen, the investigation said. The authorities’ findings give credibility to longstanding allegations that the autocratic regime led by Kagame carries out state-sponsored killings at home and abroad.

The body of the former confidant of Kagame was discovered on New Year’s Day 2014 in his room at a fivestar hotel in Johannesburg. He had been strangled with a curtain cord after a ferocious struggle.

Shortly after, James Kabarebe, then the Rwandan defence minister, said that Karegeya, 53, had suffered the consequences of his ‘‘betrayal’’. He said: ‘‘When you choose to be a dog, you die like a dog and the cleaners will wipe away the trash.’’

The summary of the investigation was revealed yesterday as an inquest was scheduled to begin into Karegeya’s death after a lengthy campaign by his family. After hearing the investigation team’s conclusions, the judge abandoned plans for the full inquest and instead ordered that the case be handed to South African prosecutors.

Officers had briefed an influential parliamentary committee on the matter in 2014, including the connection between the assassins and the Rwandan government, Lieutenant-Colonel Kwena Motlhamme said in a statement to the court, but the prosecutors had decided that no further action would be taken.

Although there is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa, Karegeya’s family said that they would not rest until the South African authorities issued warrants for the arrest of the suspects, which could allow them to be detained if they travelled outside Rwanda.