South African Police dismiss claims of arrests in Karegeya case

Patrick Karegeya allegedly died last week in a Johannesburg hotel

The South African police agency, The Hawks, which has been handling investigations into the death of Rwandan exile Patrick Karegeya, has dismissed reports in SA media that three people had been arrested in Mozambique.

In interview with South African state broadcaster SABC, Hawks spokesperson, Paul Ramaloko cautioned against mentioning names of people as suspects in the case.

Reports in a South African daily “New Age” earlier today suggested three suspects were arrested in Mozambique yesterday.

Ramaloko told SABC it is a very sensitive case:

“People must be very careful when mentioning individual names out in the public. We are receiving a lot of sensitive information regarding this case and we have to verify it all,” said Ramaloko.

“At this stage, no arrests have yet been made. Our teams are working closely with their Rwandan and Mozambican counterparts and as soon as we receive more information we will brief the media at the appropriate time.”

The New Age paper had quoted a person from IRS Investigation, a private investigations firm. However, there is no explanation how a private firm is involved in a case that is already being handled by the official state institutions.