Four jailed for hit on the general
Four men were jailed for eight years each by the Kagiso Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for attempting to murder a former Rwandan general, the National Prosecuting Authority said.
Rwandan national Amani Uriwane, and Tanzanians Hassan Mohammedi Nduli, Sady Abdou and Hemedi Dengengo Sefu, were each sentenced to eight years for attempted murder, five years for possession of an unlicensed firearm, and two years for possession of illegal ammunition, NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube said.
The sentences would run concurrently.
Six men -- three Rwandans and three Tanzanians -- were arrested and tried for the failed plot to kill General Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former member of Rwandan President Paul Kagame's inner circle, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.
AFP reported that two of the Rwandans -- the alleged mastermind and Nyamwasa's former driver -- were acquitted by magistrate
Stanley Mkhari during their last court appearance on August 29.
Nyamwasa fled to South Africa in February 2010 after falling out with the Kigali administration.
He was shot and wounded in Pretoria in June 2010 in what was described as an attack by foreign "security operatives".
Mkhari found that the assassination attempt was politically motivated.
Nyamwasa has been given asylum in South Africa. Spain and France want to extradite him for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide, AFP reported.
Rwanda wanted him to serve a 24-year prison sentence there after a military court tried him in absentia on charges of desertion, defamation, and threatening state security.
He also faces terrorism charges for allegedly masterminding grenade attacks in Kigali in the run-up to Rwanda's 2010 presidential elections, AFP reported.
(File photo: Gallo images)