Rwandan found guilty of perjury in the United States
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on BBC
A federal jury in Boston found Eric Nshimiye guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for concealing his alleged involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The former University of Rwanda student faces up to five years in prison for each of the four perjury counts, according to the BBC.
A federal jury in Boston found Eric Nshimiye, a 54-year-old Rwandan, guilty of four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges concern his testimony at the immigration fraud trial of Jean Leonard Teganya, a former university classmate accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, according to the US Department of Justice.
Prosecutors say Eric Nshimiye concealed his involvement in the massacres to enter the United States as a refugee in 1995, after fleeing to Kenya in 1994. Evidence presented at the trial implicated him in attacks on Tutsis when he was a student at the University of Rwanda in Butare, according to prosecutors.
He faces up to five years in prison for each of the four perjury counts and ten years for obstruction of justice. He is due to be sentenced on 26 January 2027. His lawyer, Kurt Kerns, said the defence was disappointed by the verdict and would pursue all avenues of appeal.
Prosecutor Tysen Duva accused Nshimiye of lying to immigration officials to obtain US citizenship, then to a federal jury to protect himself and another genocide defendant. Around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were killed in Rwanda during the 100 days of massacres in 1994.
