A woman on trial in the United States, accused of taking part in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Thursday refused to take the floor in her own defence.The trial of Beatrice Munyenyezi, 42, is taking place in Manchester, New Hampshire. She risks deportation for lying to US Immigration authorities.According to media reports, Munyenyezi’s decision to remain silent might have been swayed by testimony given on Tuesday that prompted her attorneys to ask for a mistrial twice.She faces deportation back to Rwanda if the jury finds she lied on documents to enter the North American country and obtain citizenship.Prosecution witnesses pinned Munyenyezi for directing rapes and killings, with one of the witnesses saying that he saw her shoot a nun at the edge of a killing pit next to a hotel owned by her husband’s family.Munyenyezi is the wife of Arsene Shalom Ntahobari, a former militia leader, who, together with his mother, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, were convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwandan (ICTR) and sentenced to life in prison.The two were convicted for masterminding attacks on Tutsis in the former Butare town in the southern province Prosecutors say Munyenyezi was a member of the extremist group during the Genocide. Federal prosecutors who visited Rwanda to investigate the case say she ordered rapes and murders during the Genocide.Munyenyezi’s lawyer, Mark Howard, made his second request for a mistrial saying his client’s constitutional rights were constrained because a federal investigator, the prosecution’s last witness this week, mentioned that Munyenyezi’s husband and mother-in-law were convicted of participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Judge Steven McAuliffe had earlier barred all witnesses from referring to their conviction by the United Nations International Tribunal for Rwanda.“If she had taken the stand in her own trial, prosecutors could have asked her about anything she had said in earlier trials.Since the tribunal convicted her husband and mother-in-law despite her testimony, jurors might have concluded the tribunal found her to be not credible. Then, anything she said in her own defense in Concord would be tainted,” Howard said.Prosecutors allege that Munyenyezi intentionally lied on a refugee questionnaire and naturalization documents about her role in the Genocide, so as to enter the US and later obtain citizenship. It is alleged that during the trial of Nyiramasuhuko and her son in February 2006, Munyenyezi was called as a defence witness and gave false testimony.Munyenyezi allegedly participated in the Genocide in many ways, including participating in and speaking at meetings and public rallies of the MRND and Interahamwe.
