The National Prosecution Authority is investigating the circumstances under which a Rwandan man was reportedly arrested Sunday by US border patrol agents over illegal entry into American soil by walking across the border from Canada.

Reports from the US state of Maine on Wednesday indicated that Jean Leonard Teganya, 42, a Rwandan man wanted on an active warrant in Canada for removal from that country was arrested after he illegally crossed the international border near Houlton, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Rwanda’s prosecution spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda yesterday told The New Times that they are conducting investigations whose detail cannot be shared with the media at this point.

"It did not come as a surprise to us but revealing what we know could compromise the case that is being investigated. We will only make it public once investigations are concluded,” Mukuralinda said.

According to CBSA, Teganya’s last known address was in Laval, Quebec, in Canada.

"This individual is the subject of an active Canada-wide warrant for removal because he is inadmissible to Canada. It has been determined that he violated human or international rights under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act or under international law,” reads a notice against Teganya’s mugshot on the CBSA web site.

The website listed Teganya, born November 12, 1971, 16th among 18 "individuals determined to be inadmissible to Canada and are the subject of an active Canada-wide arrest warrant, issued pursuant to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).”

The individuals on the CBSA wanted list are inadmissible to Canada for serious criminality.

Inadmissibility under the IRPA is a determination made by an administrative decision-maker that the individual is not authorised to enter or remain in Canada, the web site says. 

It is noted that a criminal conviction may lead to a finding of inadmissibility under the IRPA, but the two processes are distinct.

The CBSA says Teganya goes under several pseudo names, Jean Teganya, Léonard Nkiwane and Mduduzi Innocent.

He was reportedly apprehended after a US Border Patrol agent from the Houlton station followed up on a citizen’s report of a suspicious person walking in the area near the international boundary between the US and Canada. 

Genocide

Teganya was reportedly a medical student interning at the University Hospital in Butare when Hutu extremist militia killed nearly 200 Tutsi patients, staff and moderate Hutu there during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

After fleeing Rwanda after the worst of the massacres of 1994, he is reported to have spent time in DR Congo, Kenya and India before settling in Canada in 1999.