As it happened: The moment UK court dismissed Gen Karake case

Today, Rwanda welcomes Lt Gen Karake Karenzi from the UK where he had been detained on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. Vincent Gasana was in London’s Westminster Magistrates Court when the case was dismissed on Monday and recorded the timeline through the proceedings. Blink and you could have missed it. In the end the decision came as an anticlimax. Not much more than fifteen minutes after the judge had sat, the case was dismissed, and on a muggy London afternoon, on Monday August 10, Lieutenant-General Karenzi Karake stood up, to walk out of the Westminster Magistrates Court, a free man, and should be back at his desk in Kigali this week. The ruling was delivered by Senior District Judge Riddle, without ceremony in a low key tone. As he did so he brought to a close a drama which had begun on June 20, when General Karake was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at London’s Heathrow Airport. The General, who is Secretary-General of Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), was returning home to Rwanda, following an official visit to Britain, which included meetings with his British opposite numbers, when he was detained, sparking off furious condemnation from Rwanda, and Rwandans around the world. Gen Karake had been detained on a European Arrest Warrant issued by a junior Spanish judge Fernando Andreu Merelles. The charges hark back to 2008 and are a mishmash of lurid claims, including that Gen Karake was responsible for crimes of genocide, the murder of Spanish nationals, and that he belonged to “a criminal terrorist organisation, the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) formed for the purpose of committing acts of genocide...and establishing ‘a Tutsi-Hima empire’ in the region.” The language used throughout the indictment lacks any legal framework and is exactly reminiscent of the wording employed by many of the suspects in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, now at large in various parts of Europe and beyond. It tallies with comments made by the former Secretary for International Development (Dfid), Andrew Michel (MP), in a BBC interview about the arrest of Gen Karake. “It is a misuse of the European Arrest Warrant System, it is being used for political reasons, not judicial ones, and its politically motivated, enacted by supporters of the genocidal regime in Rwanda, which killed a million people, and it’s being used against those who stopped the genocide.” Predictably, the charges had been derided by every legal entity, from the High Court in Spain, to Interpol which would not entertain it on the grounds that it was a political tract and the organisation’s constitution prohibits it from pursuing political cases. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) Most explicit was an American diplomatic cable leaked through Wikileaks, which described the indictment as “a bloated, political tract, sloppily organised, endlessly repetitive...inventing massacres...” As the court waited for the judge to take his place, it was notable that prosecuting counsel seemed in deep thought. He nervously paced to and fro, conferring with different members of his team, perching on the desk, only to get up again, to burn off more nervous energy. In contrast, the defence team may as well not have been there; so calm were they as they sat waiting for the judge to take his place. As it turned out, they were so calm because they knew what we didn’t, that the prosecution was about to extricate itself from a case in which even they had no confidence. In a spacious, glass walled witness box, sat the solitary figure of General Karake. Looking dapper in a blue suit with matching tie, he exuded the same calm, quiet dignity he had shown since the beginning of his ordeal a month ago. His relaxed demeanour and impassive expression suggested someone about to watch a passing spectacle, rather than a man waiting to hear whether he would be released from bail. If he was hoping for an outcome that would see him return home to his duties, his face betrayed no anxiety whatsoever. The court had opened at 2pm, shortly after that, the judge entered, all rose. “Thank you,” the judge said in acknowledgement, and everyone sat down to listen to arguments. Except that none really came. Instead, we had short statements from the legal teams. The defence team addressed the question of legal costs, which it argued, or rather stated, should be met by the prosecution, and asked the judge to order the release of Gen Karake’s passport. The judge responded that the General had no case to answer to the court and he was free to pick up his passport from the police, where it had been kept. In a suggestion of why the prosecution had seemed nervous, the prosecution, representing the Spanish authorities referred to documents it had submitted to the court, detailing why it felt it no longer had a case to pursue against Gen Karake. And with that it was all over. Rwandans protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court in UK on June 25. (Courtesy) In the public gallery, members of the UK Rwanda Diaspora community who had turned out in high numbers, and sat listening intently. It was not until the judge uttered the words, “has no case to answer to this court”, discharging the case that contented, satisfied murmurs in a mixture of English and Kinyarwanda could be heard; “oh, birarangiye”, could be heard in loud whispers. Even slower on the uptake were the few members of the Congolese Diaspora who had come hoping for a different outcome. It is worth noting that of the seventy or so people, sixty were Rwandans. Once outside, the Congolese present banged drums, shouted abuse, offered violent conflict, but Rwandans remained calm. The targets of all this provocation would not be drawn. It turns out that the leadership of the Rwanda Community had given guarantees to the Metropolitan Police that they would behave impeccably, and they were determined to honour their word. In some ways, the Rwandans have become victims of their own good behaviour. The Metropolitan Police has realised that the Rwandan community can be trusted to act within the law at such demonstrations, and they never bother to send officers to police them, or when they do, it is in small numbers, as happened on this occasion. The hooliganism of the Congolese demonstrators was the only drama on a day that Rwandans had expected to witness legal arguments in a complex case, but, which instead was wound up only minutes after it had begun. Rwanda’s opponents may perhaps rue bringing the case against Gen Karake, in that it had more power untested. Now that it has been shown to have been spurious at best, where does it leave the claims against the other 39 current and former senior RPF officers against whom a similar indictment and the same alleged crimes stood? “After careful consideration we do not believe an extradition offence can be established under UK law...” so stated the prosecution. The question for the UK authorities now is why was such a case ever entertained at all? Vincent Gasana is a broadcast journalist and programme maker, he lives and works in London. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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As it happened: The moment UK court dismissed Gen Karake case