First a gunman shot an exiled Rwandan army general. When the general survived, prosecutors say the people who wanted him dead plotted to strangle him in his South African hospital bed.
Prosecutors would not say whether they believe Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s government was behind the attack carried out in another corner of the continent. However, on Tuesday as a trial began, prosecutors disclosed that key witnesses are now under special protection in South Africa because they fear the Rwandan government.
Rwandan authorities have angrily denied the allegations of involvement in last year’s attack on Lieutenant General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and have even hired a South African lawyer to monitor the court proceedings this week in Johannesburg.
“The government of Rwanda doesn’t have anything to hide. They’re not involved in this,” its lawyer Gerhard van der Merwe said.
Prosecutor Shaun Abrahams refused to say on Tuesday whether his case would implicate the Rwandan government.
He said the evidence would speak for itself during the complex trial, which is being conducted in English and translated into three other languages: French, Swahili and Kinyarwanda.
The shooting victim, who has kept a low profile since the attack in June last year, also faces international war crimes charges linked to the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide — allegations he denies.
Nyamwasa was once Rwanda’s military chief, before he fell out with the president and went into exile in South Africa last year.
He and several other top Kagame aides have since been convicted in absentia on charges that include threatening state security.
Now three Rwandans and three Tanzanians are accused of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges in Nyamwasa’s shooting in South Africa.
They each pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday.
The key suspect in the case is Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan businessman. He’s also accused of plotting to kill Nyamwasa while the general was hospitalized after the shooting.
Kanyandekwe and four men not linked to the shooting are to stand trial in the hospital plot later this month.
He also is accused of bribery after two police officers said he offered them US$1 million to let him go when they arrested him in July last year.
The other two Rwandans accused in the case are Nyamwasa’s driver and a former Rwandan soldier, according to prosecutors.
A witness yesterday linked Rwandan soldiers to Nyamwasa’s shooting.
The Rwandan immigrant testified that one of the suspects had described being recruited by Rwandan soldiers who had plenty of cash and cars.
While Nyamwasa portrays himself as a champion of democracy and is a victim, he also faces serious criminal charges.
A Spanish judge in 2008 charged Nyamwasa and 39 other members of the Rwandan military with the mass killings of civilians after they seized power in Rwanda.
A UN report last year echoed the 2008 Spanish charges, accusing invading Rwandan troops of killing tens of thousands of Hutus in 1996 and 1997 in Congo.
South African refugee and human rights groups have gone to court to try to have Nyamwasa’s asylum status stripped because of the allegations.
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