US trial begins for Rwandan-American accused of role in genocide

Eric Nshimiye, an American citizen, says the evidence against him consists of unreliable eye witnesses.

A view of Kigali, Rwanda, on October 13, 2026 [Yuhi Irakiza/AP]

Boston, Massachusetts, United States – 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, in what has been called a genocide by the United Nations.

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Investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security arrested Nshimiye at his home in Ohio in 2024, alleging 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 who was also accused of perpetrating the genocide. Prosecutors say Nshimiye, a medical student at the time of the genocide in the town of Butare, himself 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, including Nshimiye in the group.

“He himself attacked Tutsis, and handed Tutsis over to be killed and raped,” Looney said.

During his 2019 testimony, Nshimiye denied being part of the genocide, and 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 during the genocide.

Nshimiye faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for those denials. If convicted, the Trump administration could try to revoke Nshimiye’s citizenship.

Nshimiye, who is an ethnic Hutu, says he had gone to the capital, Kigali, on holiday before violence broke out. He says he never made it back to Butare because of the chaos engulfing the country in April 1994, 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, dressed in a dark blue suit, was calm and occasionally turned to smile at family and friends who came to support him. Since his arrest, authorities have kept Nshimiye without bail in a Boston-area federal jail.

Prosecutors plan to put more than a dozen witnesses on the stand, most flown in from Rwanda, who say they recall seeing Nshimiye participate in pro-Hutu political events before the genocide, and some who say they later saw him participate in genocidal violence in Butare.

His family says the events of 1994 are more complex than the simple narrative of Hutus killing Tutsis. Simply being an ethnic Hutu, Epa Bizimana, Nshimiye’s nephew, told Al Jazeera, should not be enough to convince a jury someone took part in the genocide.

“The jury is going to learn some things for the first time; Americans are going to learn something for the first time,” said Bizimana, who 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 entire case against him is built on the accounts of eyewitnesses, some of whom were only able to identify him after repeatedly being shown his photo, and some of whom have a history of giving different testimony in trials of alleged genocidaires over the years.

Kurt Kerns, one of the defence attorneys, told the court that the prosecution’s case was based on evidence “that only reared its ugly head after Eric came to testify as a character witness, and 25 years after the genocide.”

Kerns said Nshimiye had never been implicated in domestic and international tribunals after the genocide, including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as well as an informal transitional justice system inside Rwanda, called gacaca, which tried more than a million people for their role in the atrocity.

美国公民埃里克·恩希米耶表示，对他不利的证据来自不可靠的目击证人。

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美国马萨诸塞州波士顿——波士顿一家美国联邦法院开始审理一名卢旺达裔美国人被控掩盖其在 1994 年卢旺达种族灭绝事件中所扮演角色的案件。

检察官称，55岁的埃里克·恩希米耶（Eric Nshimiye）是美国公民，育有四个孩子。他参与了1994年4月胡图族极端分子在全国范围内对少数族裔图西族发动的种族灭绝暴力事件。在约100天的时间里，超过80万人被​​杀害，联合国已将此事件定性为种族灭绝。

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2024年，美国国土安全部调查人员在俄亥俄州恩希米耶的家中将其逮捕，指控他在接受讯问时就其在卢旺达种族灭绝期间的经历撒谎。他们还指控他在2019年波士顿的一次审判中作伪证，当时他为一位同样被指控参与种族灭绝的朋友作证。检方称，恩希米耶在种族灭绝发生时是布塔雷镇的一名医学生，他本人也参与了对图西族人的杀戮和强奸。

美国助理检察官克里斯托弗·卢尼周二在法庭上表示，参与暴力事件的胡图族人“响应政府的号召，消灭了他们的邻居”，其中包括恩希米耶。

“他亲自袭击图西族人，并将图西族人交给他人杀害和强奸，”卢尼说。

在 2019 年的证词中，恩希米耶否认参与了种族灭绝，并表示他不是亲胡图族的全国革命发展运动和胡图族民兵组织“因特拉哈姆韦”（被指责为种族灭绝期间大部分杀戮的准军事组织）的成员。

恩希米耶因否认这些指控而面临伪证罪和妨碍司法公正罪的指控。如果罪名成立，特朗普政府可能会试图撤销恩希米耶的公民身份。

恩希米耶是胡图族人，他说在暴力冲突爆发前，他曾去首都基加利度假。由于1994年4月席卷全国的混乱局势，他再也没能回到布塔雷，而是以难民身份离开了这个国家，最终来到美国，并于2009年成为美国公民。

周二开庭时，身着深蓝色西装的恩希米耶神态平静，不时转身向前来支持的家人和朋友微笑致意。自被捕以来，恩希米耶一直被关押在波士顿地区的一所联邦监狱，不得保释。

检察官计划传唤十几名证人出庭作证，其中大部分是从卢旺达空运过来的。这些证人表示，他们记得在种族灭绝之前看到恩希米耶参加亲胡图族的政治活动，还有一些证人表示，他们后来看到他参与了布塔雷的种族灭绝暴力活动。

他的家人表示，1994年的事件远比胡图族屠杀图西族这一简单叙事复杂得多。恩希米耶的侄子埃帕·比齐马纳告诉半岛电视台，仅仅因为是胡图族人，并不足以让陪审团相信某人参与了种族灭绝。

“陪审团将会第一次了解到一些事情；美国人将会第一次了解到一些事情，”比齐马纳说道。1994年，10岁的他与家人一起逃离了卢旺达。

辩方律师周二向法庭表示，恩希米耶并非参与种族灭绝的胡图族人。他们指出，针对他的全部指控都建立在目击者的证词之上，其中一些目击者是在反复查看他的照片后才认出他，还有一些目击者在过去几年对涉嫌种族灭绝者的审判中曾多次提供不同的证词。

辩护律师之一库尔特·克恩斯告诉法庭，检方的指控是基于“在埃里克作为品格证人出庭作证后，以及种族灭绝发生 25 年后才浮出水面的证据”。

科恩斯表示，种族灭绝事件发生后，恩希米耶从未在国内和国际法庭受到指控，包括卢旺达问题国际刑事法庭以及卢旺达境内的非正式过渡司法系统（称为“加卡卡”），该系统审判了超过一百万人，指控他们在暴行中扮演的角色。