Seven persons have been charged with murder and complicity to murder over possible involvement in what seemed to be a systematic spate of killings that claimed a dozen of sex workers in Kigali City in the months of July and August this year.According to police, three of the suspects have appeared in court.In August, fear gripped prostitutes in Kigali city after a dozen of their colleagues were killed in mysterious deaths that left many baffled.Sources which could not be independently verified put the dead to 18 while police maintained only 15 had died."Post mortem results show….Some died of natural causes..Others of murder. We have ruled out a serial killer assumption,” Superintendent Emmanuel Ngondo of Anti Narcotic Unit at CID headquarters in Kacyiru told The New Times during an interview.He added that the target group was prostitutes in the lower strata, and so most of their patrons-cum-murder suspects happen to be in the same category.Most of the killings took place in Gatsata, Migina and Kimisagra – all slum areas of Kigali.Police Spokesman Theos Badege, who was present at the interview, said investigating deaths of prostitutes does not come easy because the victim and the assailant are usually strangers."There is also a possibility of committing crime by imitation,” Badege added.He said most of the suspects had confessed to investigative authorities that they killed the prostitutes because of money and HIV infection wrangles.He said a case in point is ‘the death of Mutuyimana Claudette, a sex worker killed in Kimisagara suburb of Kigali whose assailant confessed to police that he had killed her after she had infected him with HIV.He pointed out that a postmortem report revealed the deceased was HIV positive and the suspect tested positive as well."One sex worker was victim of a married man who had fathered a child with her; The suspect did not know how to explain having a child with a sex worker and he killed her to get rid the problem,” Superintendent Ngondo added.At the height of the killings, one afternoon, three young women were found dead in Gatsata suburb of Kigali.According to the neighbours, two of the young women were known prostitutes, while the third is suspected to have been killed because she had witnessed the fate of the sex workers.Angelique Mukarwaka, a local official attached to Gatsata Sector, identified the deceased as; Donatha Yankurije, 22, Veredianah Mukashingiro alias Miyatatu 31, and Alphonsine Ahishakiye, a housewife and a mother of two.