Rwandan spy chief 'was murdered,' friends claim Police say they are "keeping an open mind" about who might be responsible for the death - but say they have seen no evidence to suggest the Rwandan government's involvement. Several prominent Rwandan dissidents have claimed that their lives are at risk from the authoritarian Mr Kagame, who is widely praised by the West for turning the central African country around after its darkest chapter but has proved intolerant of criticism. British police have warned Rwandans living in London that there may be contracts out on their lives. Rwandan President Paul Kagame (AFP) Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, Rwanda's former army chief who is also living in South Africa and has himself survived two assassination attempts in Johannesburg, said that there was "no doubt" in his mind that Mr Karegeya's death was ordered by Mr Kagame's regime. "We have always known that we were being followed, and the government would try to kill us," he said. We are not surprised by this, even though it's very tragic. People went to his house to try to kill him before. Mr Karegeya fled to South Africa in 2006 after serving 18 months in prison for insubordination and being stripped of his rank of colonel. Gen Nyamwasa said his friend was held for six months without charge and his family were refused the right to see him before the court process began. "That shows that they were enemies and it an extra-judicial process," he said. Kagame doesn't want opponents. He said that the former spy chief knew of several plots to have him killed in either a botched robbery or by persuading his friends to poison his food. He claimed that the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), the opposition party he and Mr Karegeya had formed, had in its possession recordings of senior Rwandan security officials giving instructions for him to be killed and promising money in return. "He didn't have much security because he couldn't afford it - the South African government provided him with security for a while but he asked for it to stop because it was too restrictive and he needed to work, to provide for his family," he said. Mr Karegeya told The Telegraph in a previous interview that while he took precautions about where he went and who he met, he was stoic about the threats, adding: "You can't live in fear." Gen Nyamwasa said he also hoped that the diplomatic fallout from the attempts on his own life would provide him with some protection. "He hoped that the regime might stop after the attempts on me out of respect to the South African government," he said. But he said he was also "fearless" about challenging Mr Kagame, and had offered to give evidence to judges at the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal who were looking at the events that led up to the Rwandan genocide. "He was waiting to meet them," he said. Gen Nyamwasa said he believed a man who arrived in South Africa recently was responsible for his death. It was him he was meeting to discuss a possible franchise. He was an old friend who I think he trusted because he visited him in prison when none of this other friends dared," he said. I think they used him to kill. They compromised him, using money. Captain Paul Ramaloko, spokesman for the Hawks serious crime unit of the South African police, cautioned against pointing fingers so early on. "We are looking at anything that will help us but we are keeping an open mind," he said. Asked about the allegations that Mr Kagame's regime was to blame, he said: "So far, the investigation hasn't suggested that." The Rwandan government did not respond to requests for comment.