Court strikes high-profile murder case from the roll

South African authorities working on the murder of Rwandan spy boss Patrick Karegeya in Johannesburg five years ago have been dealt a blow after the Randburg Magistrate’s Court today struck the case from the roll due to inadequate investigations. Karegeya was at the luxury Michelangelo hotel in Sandton. He had fled Rwanda after falling out with the government and, on the run from President Paul Kagame’s wrath, he sought refuge in SA. A Mail & Guardian Online report notes that Karegeya and Kagame had once been close friends. After the Rwandan genocide, Karegeya rose to become the country’s external military chief, and was accused of hunting down opponents of the government and ensuring they were dealt with. After he became a dissident, he travelled to SA seeking asylum. However, magistrate Jeremiah Matopa said the docket in Karegeya’s case was missing documents and outstanding evidence. He gave the investigating officer a deadline of 14 days to submit all missing evidence. This after the family had submitted an application asking the court to suspend the inquest until the police explain their ‘failure … to successfully solve this crime and thereby ensure that criminal proceedings could not be instituted’. The report notes that they characterised the delay in prosecution as the ‘irresistible interference of political meddling or a prohibition to proficiently investigate the identified perpetrators’. The four suspects have been identified by the Hawks.