A South African court has acquitted the two key suspects in the attempted murder of Rwandan exile Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa.

The Rwandan nationals, Richard Bachisa, Kayumba’s former driver, and Pascal Kanyandekwe, a businessman, were acquitted after Magistrate Stanley Makari cleared them of all the charges, saying the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence and sometimes built its case on "speculation”.

Prosecution had argued that Kanyandekwe had paid the attackers and offered police $1 million in bribes when he was arrested.

The case is about the attempted assassination of Kayumba in his Johannesburg home on June 19, 2010.

The court found three Tanzanians and another Rwandan guilty. It set September 10 as the date of the sentences.

Questions remain regarding the involvement of Kayumba’s brother-in-law Frank Ntwali as an interpreter as police interrogated some of the suspects early on as well as the reason behind the prosecution’s reluctance to call upon him to testify.