A United States federal court in Boston has begun hearing the case of a Rwandan-American accused of covering up his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Prosecutors say Eric Nshimiye, a 55-year-old father of four and a US citizen, took part in a nationwide outbreak of genocidal violence against ethnic minority Tutsis by majority Hutu extremists in April 1994. More than 800,000 people were killed over about 100 days.
Investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security arrested Nshimiye at his home in Ohio in 2024. They alleged he had lied to them in an interview about his time in Rwanda during the genocide. They also allege he committed perjury in a previous trial in 2019 in Boston when he testified on behalf of a friend accused of perpetrating the genocide. Prosecutors say Nshimiye, a medical student at the time in the town of Butare, took part in the killing and rape of Tutsis.
Hutus who took part in the violence heeded calls by the government to terminate their neighbours, Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Looney told the court on Tuesday. He included Nshimiye in that group, stating he attacked Tutsis and handed them over to be killed and raped.
During his 2019 testimony, Nshimiye denied being part of the genocide. He said he was not part of the pro-Hutu National Revolutionary Movement for Development and the Interahamwe, the paramilitary group blamed for most of the killings. Nshimiye faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for those denials. If convicted, the government could try to revoke his citizenship.
Nshimiye, an ethnic Hutu, says he went to the capital, Kigali, on holiday before violence broke out. He says he never made it back to Butare because of the chaos, and instead left the country as a refugee, eventually coming to the US and becoming a citizen in 2009. At the opening of his case on Tuesday, Nshimiye wore a dark blue suit, remained calm and occasionally smiled at family and friends. Authorities have kept him without bail in a Boston-area federal jail since his arrest.
Prosecutors plan to put more than a dozen witnesses on the stand, most flown in from Rwanda. These witnesses say they recall seeing Nshimiye participate in pro-Hutu political events before the genocide, and some say they later saw him participate in violence in Butare.
His family says the events of 1994 are more complex than the simple narrative of Hutus killing Tutsis. Being an ethnic Hutu should not be enough to convince a jury someone took part in the genocide, Epa Bizimana, Nshimiye’s nephew, told reporters. Bizimana was 10 years old when he fled Rwanda with his family in 1994.
Defence lawyers told the court on Tuesday that Nshimiye was not part of the Hutus who participated in the genocide. They say the case relies on eyewitnesses, some of whom identified him only after repeatedly being shown his photo, and some of whom have given different testimony in previous trials.
Defence attorney Kurt Kerns told the court that the prosecution’s case emerged only after Eric testified as a character witness, 25 years after the genocide. Kerns said Nshimiye had never been implicated in domestic and international tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or the gacaca transitional justice system inside Rwanda.
