Ohio Man Accused of Falsifying Role in Rwandan Genocide Faces Charges
On Thursday, a Rwandan-born Ohio resident named Eric Nshimiye was arrested on charges related to his alleged involvement in concealing his participation in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide to gain entry into the United States as a refugee and later obtain U.S. citizenship.
Federal prosecutors in Boston asserted that over three decades, Nshimiye concealed his role in the massacre perpetrated by the hard-line Hutu regime, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during a period of three months. They alleged that Nshimiye actively participated in the killings, including using a nail-studded club to strike victims on the head before using a machete to kill them.
Following his resettlement in Ohio in 1995, Nshimiye allegedly attempted to obstruct any investigation into his actions by providing false testimony during the immigration fraud trial of a former classmate accused of similar atrocities.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy of Massachusetts emphasized that refugee and asylum laws are designed to protect genuine victims of persecution, not perpetrators of such crimes.
Nshimiye was apprehended in Ohio and detained after appearing in a federal court in Youngstown. His legal representative did not provide any immediate comment.
His arrest occurred four years after the 2019 trial conviction of his former classmate, Jean Leonard Teganya, in Boston. Teganya was found guilty of committing immigration fraud by concealing his involvement in the genocide while seeking asylum. Prosecutors stated that both Nshimiye and Teganya were medical students in Butare, Rwanda, during the genocide, and were associated with the political party responsible for the atrocities.
According to charging documents, Nshimiye played a role in identifying Tutsis among patients and staff at a hospital where atrocities occurred, and he directly participated in murders and encouraged sexual assaults. After leaving Rwanda in mid-July 1994, Nshimiye traveled to Kenya, where he reportedly misled U.S. immigration officials to obtain refugee status. He subsequently acquired U.S. citizenship in 2003.
