Genocide suspect lied to get citizenship - US prosecutors

KIGALI - FEDERAL prosecutors in the state of New Hampshire in the United States, Thursday arrested and indicted a Rwandan woman suspected of having participated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, on two counts of unlawfully procuring US citizenship. The Nashua Telegraph, a daily newspaper in Nashua, New Hampshire, says Beatrice Munyenyezi, 40, lied to get U.S. citizenship and had previously depicted herself as a victim of atrocities that happened in Rwanda during the Genocide. She was arrested, Thursday, on immigration charges and Nashua Telegraph mentions a federal search warrant application and affidavit written by Thomas Andersen, Jr., a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston. She is married to Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, a Genocide suspect who is on trial, together with his mother, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Nyiramasuhuko was the minister of Gender in the Genocidal Government. It is alleged that during their trial in 2006, n February 2006, Munyenyezi was called as a defence witness and gave false testimony. “Munyenyezi assisted in many ways, including but not limited to, participating in and speaking at meetings and public rallies of the MRND and Interahamwe, bringing supplies to Interahamwe and others who participated [in the] genocide against Tutsis including those who manned roadblocks in Butare, identifying and discussing Tutsis to be killed and encouraging others to rape Tutsi women and kill Tutsis, checking identity cards and otherwise identifying Tutsi at roadblocks, and selecting Tutsis to be kidnapped, raped and murdered,” Thomas is reported to have written. “Munyenyezi also took and received personal property and belongings that were taken from victims who were murdered.” It is alleged that Munyenyezi participated in the genocide using a wooden club to murder a Tutsi boy and directing the serial rape of Tutsi women and girls. U.S. Attorneys say she lied about her involvement to obtain immigration and naturalization benefits, in 1998. She was admitted to the US as a refugee in 1998 after providing false information on a number of immigration forms regarding her actions during the genocide and membership in the MRND, Thomas said in the affidavit. As noted in the daily, Thomas spoke to several eye-witnesses who were victims of the genocide, according to his affidavit, including one who positively identified Munyenyezi as the person who directed the victim’s gang rape, which took place while the victim’s husband watched. Another witness, who also took part in the genocide, told Thomas that Munyenyezi directed the serial rape of Tutsi women, ran the roadblock outside a hotel and once killed a Tutsi boy by hitting him in the head with a wooden club, according to the affidavit. She lied again in 2002 on forms she filed to obtain her naturalization. If convicted on the immigration charges, Munyenyezi could face up to 10 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine, along with the revocation of her US citizenship. Her husband and mother-in-law are in custody in Tanzania on genocide charges. In February 2006, Munyenyezi gave false testimony during those trials. It is noted that Munyenyezi’s case was investigated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aloke Chakravarty and Jeffrey Auerhahn from the District of Massachusetts. Ends