A 54-year-old Rwandan man named Eric Nshimiye has been found guilty by a federal jury in Boston on multiple counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, following a years-long investigation into his concealed role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The landmark verdict stems from false testimony Nshimiye delivered in 2019, when he appeared as a character witness for his former University of Rwanda classmate Jean Leonard Teganya, who stood trial for immigration fraud related to his own alleged participation in the 100-day mass atrocity.
Historical records confirm that more than 800,000 people, overwhelmingly members of Rwanda’s minority Tutsi community, were systematically slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists between April and July 1994. Nshimiye fled his home country for neighboring Kenya in the immediate aftermath of the violence, and was granted refugee status and entry to the United States in 1995. Prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice argued that Nshimiye deliberately omitted his active participation in the genocide during his immigration vetting process to secure safe haven in the U.S.
Court evidence presented during the recent trial corroborated that while Nshimiye was enrolled as a student at the University of Rwanda’s Butare campus, he directly joined coordinated attacks against Tutsi civilians, including beating victims over the head with wooden clubs. The jury found that he lied repeatedly under oath during Teganya’s 2019 immigration fraud trial to cover up his own violent actions and shield his former classmate, who was ultimately convicted that same year of the most severe category of immigration fraud and handed an eight-year prison sentence. Teganya had been accused of participating in at least seven murders and five rapes during the genocide, allegations he consistently denied.
U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Tysen Duva emphasized that Nshimiye spent nearly 30 years hiding his heinous acts of violence, first deceiving immigration officials to gain U.S. residency and later lying to a federal jury to protect himself and a fellow genocide perpetrator. Nshimiye faces a maximum of five years of imprisonment for each of the four perjury counts, and up to 10 years for the obstruction of justice charge, with his formal sentencing scheduled for January 26, 2027. His defense attorney Kurt Kerns released a statement noting that the legal team was deeply disappointed with the jury’s ruling, and would exhaust all available legal channels to seek relief. During opening statements in October, Kerns had argued that all charges against Nshimiye were rooted in fabricated accusations, claiming his client was not present in Butare when the genocide erupted, and that he only faced prosecution after agreeing to testify as a witness for Teganya.