A Rwandan – who has been working as an engineer in the United States for more than two decades – awaits trial after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested him on Thursday, March 21, over concealing his alleged participation in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, it has emerged.

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, also known as Eric Tabaro Nshimiyimana, 52, of Uniontown, Ohio (a US state) is charged in Boston (in Massachusetts) for a nearly three-decade scheme to conceal his alleged involvement in the Genocide.

ALSO READ: Where are the 1,100 Genocide fugitives?

The defendant is also charged with obstruction of justice and with perjury for allegedly offering false testimony in the 2019 Boston trial of his former classmate and now-convicted Genocide perpetrator, Jean Leonard Teganya.

Commenting on Nshimiye’s case, the Spokesperson of the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), Faustin Nkusi told The New Times, "NPPA opened the case file sometime back and investigations are underway, however, we had not yet sent our request for extradition to USA.”

According to the charging documents, the press release indicated that Nshimiye was a medical student at the former University of Rwanda campus in Butare, Rwanda in the early 1990s.

Both Nshimiye and Teganya were well-known student members of the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) political party, the ruling Hutu-dominated party that incited the Genocide; and the Interahamwe, the notoriously violent youth wing of that movement, it added.

As per the press release, Nshimiye was detained following an initial appearance in federal court in the Northern District of Ohio and will appear in federal court in Boston later.

The defendant allegedly participated in the killing of Tutsi men, women, and children by striking them on the head with a nail-studded club and then hacking them to death with a machete, it pointed out.

The charging documents allege specific instances of Nshimiye’s criminal conduct, including his murders of a 14-year-old boy and of a man who sewed doctor’s coats at the university hospital, it showed, adding that witnesses in Rwanda recently identified the locations of the killings and drew pictures of his weapons.

Also, it stated that it is further alleged that Nshimiye both participated in and aided and abetted the rape of numerous Tutsi women during the Genocide.

"For nearly 30 years. Nshimiye allegedly hid the truth about crimes he committed during the Rwandan Genocide in order to seek refuge in the United States and reap the benefits of U.S. citizenship. Our refuge and asylum laws exist to protect true victims of persecution -- not the perpetrators. The United States will not be a safe haven for suspected human rights violators and war criminals,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy.

For Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, "Nshimiye is accused of lying to conceal his participation in one of the greatest human tragedies of all time. The charging documents make specific allegations about the murder and rape of ethnic Tutsis committed during his time as a medical student in Rwanda.”

"The government alleges his testimony in the defence of a convicted genocidaire was a calculated attempt to conceal the horrific crimes committed during the genocide, further distancing himself from his participation in these horrific events, and avoiding consequences of his actions,” Krol said.

According to the charging documents, Nshimiye fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994. In 1995, Nshimiye made his way to Kenya where he allegedly lied to U.S. immigration officials to gain admission to the United States.

He later emigrated to Ohio and, in subsequent years, purportedly continued to provide false information about his involvement in the Genocide to obtain lawful permanent residence and ultimately U.S. citizenship.

By allegedly concealing his crimes, Nshimiye has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995, the statement indicated.

The Independent, a UK newspaper, reported on March 23 that he carved a decade-long career as an engineer by hiding a murderous past as a perpetrator during the Genocide.

The newspaper pointed out that he had worked at Goodyear – an American multinational tire manufacturer – in Ohio for 23 years. He joined the same year he graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in electrical engineering; just five years earlier he’d come to the US as a refugee from Rwanda.