Ohio resident convicted of lying about role in Rwandan genocide
An Ohio resident has been convicted of lying to a federal jury about his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, 54, was convicted Tuesday of four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, according to the DOJ. The charges stemmed from his testimony at the 2019 trial in Boston of Jean Leonard Teganya, another participant in the genocide.
Nshimiye testified on Teganya’s behalf and denied that either man had participated in the killings or belonged to Rwanda’s then-ruling Hutu-dominated party. Those statements were the basis for Nshimiye’s conviction.
Teganya had been charged with concealing his party membership and involvement in the genocide while seeking asylum in the United States. He was convicted in April 2019 of two counts of immigration fraud and three counts of perjury.
At Nshimiye’s trial, witnesses testified that he took part in attacks on Tutsi men and women while he was a medical student at the University of Rwanda in Butare. One witness, who was 17 at the time, said he saw Nshimiye club to death a tailor who worked at the university hospital.
Other witnesses described Nshimiye’s participation in roadblocks where Tutsis were separated from Hutus to be killed. Witnesses also testified that he belonged to the ruling party and attended its political rallies.
The genocide began in the spring of 1994 after the plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu president was shot down over Kigali. Members of the Hutu majority and their allies killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis, including women and children, over approximately 100 days.
Nshimiye fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994 and traveled to Kenya before entering the United States as a refugee in 1995, prosecutors said. He concealed his involvement in the genocide from immigration authorities and continued providing false information as he obtained permanent residence and later U.S. citizenship.
He has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995, according to the Justice Department.
Nshimiye faces up to five years in prison on each perjury count and up to 10 years for obstruction of justice. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 26, 2027.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
