Rwanda's sovereignty must be respected, Justice minister says

If there is any case that anyone has against Rwandans on a crime they allege was committed on Rwandan territory, it is better that such cases are handled by the Rwandan Judiciary before anyone else. This was said, yesterday, by Justice minister Johnston Busingye at Kigali International Airport where he arrived in the company of Lt Gen Karenzi Karake, who arrived in the country after being barred from leaving the United Kingdom for more than seven weeks. Karake, who is the Secretary-General of the National Intelligence and Security Services, was on June 20 stopped from leaving London over a fictitious indictment issued by a Spanish judge. The arrest was not only seen as an attack on Rwanda but on Africa. “Rwanda is a sovereign country and has a solid and tested judicial system… our position is, if at all there is any case to answer, let those cases be heard in our courts, after all whatever they allege was committed on this territory,” said Busingye, who had flown back into the country with Gen Karake and his family members. Karake is one of the 40 Rwandan officials indicted by Spanish judge Fernando Andreu Merelles in 2008, an indictment that has been dismissed by many as politically motivated, owing largely to links to genocidal forces. A 2009 report by a UN panel of experts adduced evidence that Merelles had received funding from a network of faith-based NGOs to work on the indictment while the same NGOs are known sponsors of the FDLR militia. Meanwhile, Busingye, who is also the Attorney-General, said they would continue to work closely with their counterparts in Spain to seek a lasting solution to the issue. The Spanish High Court had found flaws in all the warrants against the officials, and an appeal process on the issue is expected to get underway on September 5 which Busingye said is a process for which they will continue to work closely with their Spanish counterparts. He added that the UK court had ordered that the government of Rwanda be paid all costs incurred during the process to secure Karake’s release, but did not specify how much, saying that they would use a standard European pricing system to arrive at the total cost. Despite the fact that Interpol, the global policing body, refused to honour the warrants against the Rwandan officials, Karake was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant. Shortly after the arrest, a top British lawmaker and former International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, was even more pointed in his criticism of the indictment. “It is a misuse of the European Arrest Warrant system,” Mitchell said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Rwanda's sovereignty must be respected, Justice minister says