A US court in Boston has begun hearing the case of a Rwandan-born American accused of concealing his alleged role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and lying to US authorities.
Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, 55, is facing charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
According to media reports, prosecutors said that Nshimiye, who was a medical student in Butare during the Genocide, participated in the killing and rape of Tutsi. He denies participating in the genocide, while his defence lawyers have challenged the credibility of the evidence against him.
The trial, which opened in Boston on Tuesday, October 13, is expected to hear testimony from various witnesses, several of whom have travelled from Rwanda.
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According to prosecutors, Nshimiye participated in political activities before the genocide and later took part in attacks in Butare.
Nshimiye's case first attracted attention in March 2024, when agents of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested him at his home in Uniontown, Ohio, over allegations that he had concealed his involvement in the genocide to secure immigration benefits and eventually US citizenship.
At the time, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said Nshimiye, also known as Eric Tabaro Nshimiyimana, was accused of participating in a years-long scheme to hide his alleged involvement in the Genocide that claimed more than one million lives.
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According to the charge sheet, he was a medical student at the former National University of Rwanda campus in Butare in the early 1990s. Prosecutors alleged that he was associated with the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND), the ruling party at the time, and the Interahamwe, the militia implicated in widespread killings during the genocide.
US authorities said he fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994 and travelled to Kenya in 1995 before entering the United States. They allege that he subsequently provided false information about his past to obtain immigration status and citizenship.
Nshimiye became a US citizen in 2009 and went on to work as an engineer in Ohio. Media reports have said he worked for Goodyear, the American tyre manufacturer, for more than two decades.
The charges currently before the court concern alleged false statements and obstruction of justice, rather than a direct prosecution for genocide in the United States.
Connection to a previous genocide trial
A central element of the current case is Nshimiye's testimony in 2019 during the trial of Jean Leonard Teganya, his former classmate and a fellow medical student in Butare.
Prosecutors allege that Nshimiye gave false testimony while defending Teganya, denying his own involvement in the Genocide and his alleged links to the MRND and the Interahamwe.
The prosecution contends that the testimony was part of an effort to conceal his past and avoid accountability.
Nshimiye's defence lawyers dispute the allegations and argue that the case relies heavily on eyewitness accounts whose reliability they question.