Ohio Man Eric Nshimiye Convicted in Boston of Four Perjury Counts and Obstruction for Lying About Rwandan Genocide Role; Sentencing Jan. 26, 2027
In Boston, Massachusetts, a federal jury yesterday convicted Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, 54, also known as Eric Tabaro Nshimiyimana, of Uniontown, Ohio, of four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with his concealment of material information about his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah B. Foley announced. U.S. Senior District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV scheduled sentencing for January 26, 2027. Nshimiye was arrested and charged in March 2024.
According to evidence presented at trial, while a medical student at the University of Rwanda in Butare in the early 1990s, Nshimiye participated in attacking Tutsi men and women, including by striking them on the head with a club. Both Nshimiye and Jean Leonard Teganya were well-known student members of the ruling Hutu-dominated party, the MRND, which played a critical role in the genocide. In the spring of 1994, after the Hutu president's plane was shot down over Kigali, members of the Hutu majority and those affiliated with them murdered approximately 800,000 Tutsis in about 100 days. Victims testified that Nshimiye directly participated in the genocide: one witness, a 17-year-old boy at the time, saw him club to death a tailor who worked at the university hospital, and other witnesses recounted that he participated in roadblocks separating Tutsis from Hutus to be killed.
Nshimiye fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994 and made his way to Kenya. In 1995 he gained admission to the United States as a refugee by failing to disclose his violent participation in the genocide to immigration authorities, and he continued to provide false information to obtain lawful permanent residence and ultimately U.S. citizenship. He has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995. When called to testify at Teganya's 2019 Boston trial, Nshimiye said neither he nor Teganya had participated in the genocide. Teganya was convicted in April 2019 of two counts of immigration fraud and three counts of perjury. Prosecutors said Nshimiye assisted Teganya in obstructing justice, falsely testified about Teganya's involvement in the MRND, and perjured himself when he denied his own membership in the MRND and the Interahamwe.
"Eric Tabaro Nshimiye lived under a web of lies and deception. He obtained refuge in this Country by lying to immigration officials about his involvement in the Rwandan genocide and the appalling acts he committed on the Tutsi community," U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said. "The United States protects victims not violent criminals. This verdict ensures Nshimiye can no longer hide behind his lies." Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said Nshimiye for nearly three decades concealed his involvement in the genocide and the violence he committed, including clubbing people to death, then lied to immigration officials to become a U.S. citizen and lied to a federal jury to protect himself and a fellow perpetrator.
Obstruction of justice carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000; perjury carries up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the U.S. Interagency Human Rights Violators & War Crimes Center, the Copley, Ohio Police Department and the Summit County, Ohio Sheriff's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Looney and Trial Attorney Alexandra Skinnion of the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section are prosecuting the case.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于Boston的John Joseph Moakley联邦法院大楼，本案审判法院所在地。/ The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, where the case was tried. By Mbfitz, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
