Blair’s involvement came to light when she secured £1 million bail for her client at Westminster Magistrates’ Court when Karake, wearing his prison jumpsuit, appeared in the dock following his arrest at Heathrow airport on June 20.
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Williams Nkurunziza, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, called the arrest “an insult”. The UK ruling has been welcomed by Rwanda’s Justice Minister Johnston Busingye.
Karake’s defence lawyers and prosecutors in the case gave different reasons for why the general, a key figure in the regime of President Paul Kagame, had been freed by the court.
Rwanda had condemned as an “outrage” the arrest of Karake.
He was on an official visit to London when police arrested him.
General Karake was one of the main leaders of the armed wing of Tutsi rebel group Rwandan Patriotic Front (PRF), which ended the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and has been in power in the country ever since.
The Spanish warrant stemmed from a lengthy indictment issued by a judge in 2008 against 40 senior Rwandans including Karake, who was also accused of ordering the killing of three Spanish volunteers from a medical charity in 1997. To his supporters, Karake is a hero who helped stop the slaughter of 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis.
A Spanish judicial source had said Karake was accused of “crimes of terrorism” linked to the killing of nine Spanish citizens in Rwanda in the 1990s.
Rwanda has always maintained that Gen Karake was innocent, and the charges were politically motivated.
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“The general has been freed unconditionally after the Spanish authorities conceded that the general has committed no offense that could be prosecuted in both England and Spain”, said a statement from his defense firm, Omnia Strategy, which was founded by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
