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Sunday 28 June 2015

[AfricaRealities.com] Cherie Blair helps get bail for Rwandan spy chief fighting extradition to Spain over alleged war crimes

 

Cherie Blair helps get bail for Rwandan spy chief fighting extradition to Spain over alleged war crimes

General Karenzi Karake was detained at Heathrow Airport on behalf of Spain who accuse him of ordering massacres in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide


REUTERSCherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Lawyer: Cherie Blair
During the proceedings she was seen giving instructions to barrister Mark Summers QC as she sat in the second row of the legal benches.
Karake was controversially detained at Heathrow Airport on Saturday on behalf of Spain who accuse him of ordering massacres in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide including the murders of three Spanish aid workers and, allegedly, two Brits.
During his second court appearance, Mrs Blair successfully argued for the controversial Rwandan intelligence chief to be bailed ahead of a full extradition hearing.
Karake was bailed for a security of £1million as he prepares for a two-day extradition hearing in October.
The Spanish legal documents connect him to the killings of Chris Mannion, a British Catholic missionary shot dead in 1994, and Graham Turnbull, an aid worker and observer with the UN High Commission for Refugees killed in 1997.
The courtroom was filled to the brim, with people and supporters sitting on the floor of the public gallery.
Nicknamed KK, the Rwandan government hail Karake as one of the people who stopped the genocide in 1994.
Wearing a green and yellow patterned jump suit Karake's entrance - clasping his hands in the air - provoked a spontaneous round of applause and whistling from supporters in the public gallery and on the legal benches.
He then sat cross-armed looking defiant, just yards away from Mrs Blair .
Mr Summers, who referred to his client as "the general," said his role as Secretary General of the National Security Services was equivalent to John Brennan of the CIA.
He described Karake as of "impeccable character" and a senior member of a "respected and democratic government."
"The context of these allegations is the government battle to stop the 1990-1994 genocide," Mr Summers explained, criticising Spain's attempts at "universal jurisdiction."
"It is a private prosecution brought in Spain, driven by private interest groups with links to those responsible for the underlying genocide."
In 2008 Karake was indicted by Spanish investigative judge Andreu Merelles for alleged war crimes, along with 39 current or former high-ranking Rwandan military officials.
Karake is also accused of ordering the killing of three Spanish nationals working for Medicos del Mundo in 1997.
Following his arrest on Saturday he made his first appearance at Westminster Magistrates just hours later.
Bailing Karake, District Judge Quentin Purdy said: "It's an extremely serious series of complaints. I can't see anything less than a million pounds being appropriate.
"Given the matters being canvassed, I am prepared to give you conditional bail."
Judge Purdy said he was satisfied with assurances given by the Rwandan government, and was convinced Karake would not "frustrate proceedings here by trying to abscond."
Karake must hand over his passport, not be in possession of travel documents, and not travel outside of the M25.
Some 200 people also gathered outside the British High Commission in Rwanda on Wednesday to protest at the arrest.
An estimated 800,000 people were killed in two months by ethnic Hutu extremists.
Most of the dead were members of the minority Tutsi community and politicallymoderate Hutus.
The killings only ended when the RPF, a Tutsi-led rebel movement, seized control of the country.

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“The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.”

“I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.”

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

“When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.”