US convicts Rwandan man who hid genocide role for decades

What the report says

A federal jury in Boston has convicted Eric Nshimiye, a Rwandan man living in the United States, of perjury and obstruction of justice over testimony he gave in a 2019 immigration fraud case involving his former university classmate, Jean Leonard Teganya, according to BBC Africa. Prosecutors said Nshimiye lied under oath to hide his own role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and to help protect Teganya, who was also accused of involvement in the violence.

BBC Africa reported that Nshimiye fled Rwanda in 1994, spent time in Kenya and was admitted to the US as a refugee in 1995. The trial evidence, prosecutors said, showed he had taken part in attacks on Tutsi people while a student at the University of Rwanda in Butare. The genocide left about 800,000 people dead, mostly from Rwanda’s minority Tutsi community, during a 100-day campaign of killings by ethnic Hutu extremists.

The US Justice Department said Nshimiye concealed his past for nearly three decades and later lied to immigration officials and to the jury. He faces possible prison terms of up to five years on each perjury count and up to 10 years for obstruction of justice, with sentencing scheduled for 26 January 2027. His lawyer said the defense was disappointed and would seek further relief, while maintaining that the allegations were false.