An exiled former Rwandan intelligence chief was found murdered in a Johannesburg hotel room, police said yesterday, in a killing a Rwandan opposition party blamed on the country’s government.

Patrick Karegeya, who once headed military intelligence in his homeland, fled to South Africa in 2007 after allegedly plotting a coup against President Paul Kagame with former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who was also exiled there.

We will check if it was as a result of strangulation/quote]

Karegeya’s body was discovered on New Year’s Day on a bed at Michelangelo Towers, an upscale hotel and apartment complex he had apparently booked in to three days earlier, South African police said.

His neck was swollen and a bloody towel and rope were found in the room’s safe, they said.

Paul Ramakolo, a spokesman for South Africa’s Hawks, an elite crime fighting unit, confirmed Karegeya had been killed.

“We will check if it was as a result of strangulation or what could be the factor,” he said.

The opposition Rwanda National Congress, many of whose senior members are also living in exile, described Karegeya’s death as an assassination.

“By killing its opponents, the criminal regime in Kigali seeks to intimidate and silence the Rwandan people into submission,” it said.