Suspects in murder of Rwandan dissident Patrick Karegeya are ‘directly linked’ to Paul Kagame’s government, police say

After five years of delays, South Africa is facing mounting pressure to issue arrest warrants for a group of alleged assassins who were found by police investigators to have direct links to the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

In a ruling Thursday, a South African judge said the murder of Rwandan dissident Patrick Karegeya was committed by “known” persons. He cut short a planned inquest and ordered the case to be handed over to prosecutors, who will consider issuing arrest warrants.

Mr. Karegeya, a former Rwandan spy chief and top aide to Mr. Kagame who had a falling out with the President, was strangled to death in a luxury hotel room in Johannesburg on New Year’s Eve, 2013.

Justice Mashiane Mathopa made his ruling after receiving a new summary of the police investigation, which concluded that the suspects in the murder of Mr. Karegeya and several other attempted assassinations were “directly linked to the involvement of the Rwandan government.”

The police statement and judge’s ruling are further evidence supporting the findings of a 2014 investigation by The Globe and Mail, which documented the role of the Rwandan government in plots to kill Rwandan dissidents in South Africa and elsewhere.

The suspects in the Karegeya murder fled South Africa “immediately after the commission of the crime” and are still in Rwanda today, which makes it “very difficult” to trace them, the police statement said.

Instead of issuing arrest warrants in 2014, South African prosecutors waited more than four years and then called an inquest into Mr. Karegeya’s death. But after reviewing statements by witnesses and police, Justice Mathopa said there was no need for a full inquest because the suspects and the cause of death were already known. “There is a prima facie case against known persons,” he said.

Although there is no extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa, the Karegeya family wants South Africa to issue the arrest warrants, which would allow the suspects to be detained if they travel outside Rwanda. The judge’s ruling will add to this pressure.

In a statement summarizing the police investigation, Lieutenant-Colonel Kwena Motlhamme hinted at political interference and strained diplomatic relations that may have stalled the prosecution of the suspects.

He disclosed that police investigators had been summoned to South Africa’s Parliament in 2014, where they were questioned by MPs about the case and Rwanda’s role. South Africa later expelled several Rwandan diplomats, accusing them of involvement in plots to assassinate Mr. Karegeya and another prominent dissident.

But in recent years, South Africa and Rwanda have been patching up their differences, and their leaders have held several meetings, leading to concerns among the Karegeya family that the South African government could try to bury the cases.