The three men are former members of a Hutu rebel group that is an offshoot of groups largely responsible for 1994 genocide. The Australian government has reportedly accepted a third Rwandan man who had been charged with murder as part of a refugee swap deal with the United States.
In May it was revealed Australia had accepted two men as refugees for resettlement in November 2018, Leonidas Bimenyimana and Gregoire Nyaminani, and they were living in Australia. The men are former members of the Hutu rebel group Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, an offshoot of Rwandan armed forces and paramilitary groups largely responsible for the 1994 genocide.
The two, with a third, Francois Karake, had been brought to the US in 2003 to face trial for the murder of two US victims who were part of a tourist group of eight murdered while on a gorilla-watching trip in the Ugandan rainforests in 1999.
But a judge ruled the men had been tortured in Rwanda when their confessions were made, and the case was dropped. The men claimed they could not be returned to Rwanda because they would be persecuted. All three remained in detention in the US until two were brought to Australia.
Politico reported on Sunday that Karake, 55, had been released from detention in Miami last Tuesday and arrived in Australia on Thursday.
Guardian Australia had not confirmed the report at the time of publishing and had sought comment from the home affairs department.
Home affairs told Politico that it did not comment on individual cases but that “all applicants undergo health, character and security screening”.
The Politico report speculated that Karake’s transfer may have taken longer than for the other two men because of an altercation with a guard at an immigration detention centre in 2015.
At the time news surfaced of the first two men being brought to Australia, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, distanced himself from the decision, stating it was made when Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister. However, Guardian Australia revealed the national security committee of cabinet, of which Morrison was a member at the time, was briefed about all aspects of the refugee swap deal in later 2016, including regarding the Rwandan men.
