JOHANNESBURG � Spain is seeking the extradition of a former Rwandan general for genocide who has been targeted in two assassination plots while in exile in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.
Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa has been in South Africa since reportedly falling out with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Nyamwasa's wife says Kagame was behind the shooting of her husband in Johannesburg in June that left him hospitalized with a bullet wound in the stomach. Rwanda's government denies involvement.
State prosecutor Malose Samuel Monene said there was a second plot to kill Nyamwasa while he was in the hospital. A total of ten suspects have been arrested in the shooting and the second alleged plot. One of the suspects planned to strangle Nyamwasa with string in the hospital but the attack was never carried out, The Star newspaper reported.
A magistrate on Wednesday suspended a bail hearing until Oct. 7 for Pascal Kanyandekwe, a Rwandan who is the sole suspect charged both with the shooting of Nyamwasa and the conspiracy to kill him in the hospital.
South African government spokesman Tlali Tlali said Wednesday South Africa has received Spain's extradition request but declined to say what the response might be. Spain's Cabinet announced Friday it was seeking Nyamwasa's extradition. A Spanish judge in 2008 charged him and 39 other members of the Rwandan military with the mass killings of civilians after they seized power in Rwanda and pushed out Hutus who in 1994 killed more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a genocide.
Nyamwasa and other senior Tutsis are accused of waging a subsequent extermination campaign against Hutus.
Spanish courts can prosecute human rights crimes even if they are alleged to have occurred in other countries so long as there is a clear link to Spain. Three Spanish aid workers were killed East Africa in 1997 � homicides for which Nyamwasa has also been charged in Spain.
The Spanish extradition request comes after a draft U.N. report accuses Rwandan troops and allies tied to Kagame of slaughtering tens of thousands of Hutus in neighboring Congo. Kagame vehemently rejected the accusations and has threatened to withdraw Rwandan peacekeepers from Sudan if the accusations are contained in the U.N. report which is expected to be published in October.
Rwanda has accused Nyamwasa of trying to destabilize Kagame's government and asked South Africa to send the general home on charges linked to grenade attacks in Rwanda's capital earlier this year.
Nyamwasa was shot in the stomach by a gunman in June as he was returning with his wife to the upscale gated community where they live in northern Johannesburg.
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