Rwandan Genocide suspect in Malawi court today

The game could be over for a Rwandan genocide suspect, Vincent Murekezi, who has been posing as a businessman and living the high life in Malawi. Murekezi had been living and posing as a Malawian businessman over the past five years after obtaining two Malawi passports bearing two surnames: Banda and Murekezi. But a tip-off led to his exposure in a local newspaper, The Daily Times and a move by concerned Malawian citizens to have him arrested. The concerned Malawians petitioned the Speaker of Parliament in Lilongwe to inform their Government that they were giving it an ultimatum to have Murekezi arrested within 48 hours or face organised civil disobedience. The case of Murekezi has raised embarrassing questions for the Government of Malawi after it was reported that it had failed to respond, in 2009, to a request from Rwanda’s former prosecutor general, Martin Ngoga for the arrest and extradition of Murekezi. It was also been reported that while in Malawi, Murekezi managed to obtain a gun with a license despite his application for a fire-armed being turned down. Murekezi had managed, until now, to evade an international warrant for his arrest for war crimes that had been issued under number RPGR 450/GEN/MUD/RE by the National Public Prosecution Authority. A Gacaca Court in the Southern Province convicted him of war crimes. Murekezi who is being held in remand jail, is scheduled to appear in court in Lilongwe today for commencement of an extradition process in response to a request by the Government of Rwanda for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Murekezi may also face charges related to fraud after he used a forged Rwandan Passport to facilitate the acquisition of Malawian nationality – a case that can lead to deportation. Several genocide suspects have been deported on similar grounds. This year alone, suspects from the US, Canada and Norway were deported after it was established that they misled authorities there by giving them wrong information - to conceal their ties to the Genocide - during the process to acquire citizenship in those countries. The writer is a Malawian media consultant and trainer

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Rwandan Genocide suspect in Malawi court today