KEY POINTS:
Three Rwandan rebels who confessed to the murders of a group of Western tourists, including two New Zealand women, are now seeking political asylum in the United States.
The three men were extradited to the US in 2003 after being charged with the murder of two American citizens
among the eight tourists.
However, a US judge threw out the case earlier this year after saying the three men's confessions to the 1999 killings had been obtained through torture.
Aucklander Rhonda Avis, 27, and Michelle Strathern, 26, of Timaru, were murdered along with an American couple and four Britons.
They had been taken hostage in a national park in Uganda, near the border with Rwanda, while on a gorilla-watching expedition.
The three men, all members of the Liberation Army of Rwanda (ALIR), a group of Hutu rebels opposed to the Tutsi-led government, were taken into custody about two years later and were held and interrogated until they were removed from Rwanda to the US in March 2003.
In August last year, US Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle detailed a large body of evidence that the three rebels - Francois Karake, Gregoire Nyaminani and Leonidas Bimenyimana - had been physically and psychologically tortured by the Rwandan authorities during the time of a joint Rwandan/FBI investigation into the murders.
They had been kept in solitary confinement, often in bare, wet cells with no light and had been beaten repeatedly, including with bricks and a piece of rubber.
Nyaminani said that at one point during captivity he had his wrists bound together with nylon rope, one over his shoulder, the other behind his back for two weeks.
Following their extradition to the US, the three accused were held in jail in Washington DC. It is understood they are now being held by US Immigration while their application for asylum is considered.
Jean Strathern, Michelle's mother, told the Herald she and husband Peter were "gutted" when they heard the men's case had been thrown out and that they were seeking asylum.
She said she had no sympathy for the men's treatment in Rwanda. "I wish they had a bit more," she said.
Mr Strathern added: "We have been on a rollercoaster ride for about four years. Originally we didn't think anyone would be held accountable. Then it came this far but it just didn't happen."
The couple want the men to be sent to Uganda to stand trial there.
Pauline Jackson, mother of Rhonda Avis, said she would have liked to have seen a sentence handed down, as long as it wasn't the death penalty.
"You think justice is going to be served, but it doesn't always work out," she said. "Some sort of punishment should be dealt out."
Both families are being kept in touch with developments by authorities in the US and the Jacksons understand the three men will face immigration hearings over the next three months.
Relatives of the Americans killed in the attack also expressed anger when they were told the men were seeking asylum in the US.
Deanne Haubner, sister of murdered tourist Robert Haubner, told the Washington Times: "If someone were to say that the terrorists responsible for the attacks on the Twin Towers could be arrested and never face justice because their confessions were supposedly coerced, nobody would stand for it.
"This is no different. These guys were terrorists before terrorism became fashionable."
Amnesty International has said Rwandans, including the three rebels, are in danger of torture or ill treatment if returned to their home country.
A fourth man, Jean Paul Bizimana, was sentenced in January 2006 by a Ugandan court to 15-years in jail for the murders.
