Prosecutor: Teganya is a wanted Genocide suspect

Prosecutor-General Jean-Bosco Mutangana has confirmed that Jean-Leonard Teganya, a Rwandan currently before US courts on fraud charges, is a wanted Genocide suspect. Mutangana was yesterday reacting to reports that Teganya, 46, had last week appeared in a court in Boston, United States, on charges of using fraudulent means to gain asylum. He is particularly accused of lying about his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Speaking to The New Times on Monday, Mutangana confirmed that Teganya is actually a wanted Genocide suspect with an outstanding arrest warrant over his role in the Genocide, particularly in the former Butare prefecture, now in Southern Province. “This is a wanted Genocide suspect by Rwandan prosecution. He was indicted in 2014 and his role in the Genocide is established in Ngoma District, the former Butare Prefecture,” Mutangana said, declining to divulge further details. Media reports indicate that Teganya traveled through DR Congo and India before arriving in Canada in 1999 where he reportedly unsuccessfully twice sought asylum. His requests were denied after officials concluded he took part in the Genocide against the Tutsi at the hospital where he worked as a trainee in the former Butare town, now in Huye District, prosecutors said. Witness accounts indicate that, in April 1994, the suspect worked with Interahamwe militia in many respects, including setting up roadblocks in areas around Huye together with the likes of Arsene Ntahobari, where Tutsi would be killed. Ntahobari, then a leader of a unit of the Interahamwe, and others were in 2011 sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of genocide, extermination, rape, persecution, murder and inhuman acts, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) even though the Appeals Chamber reduced his sentence to 47 years in prison in 2015. Ntahobari is a son of Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, the only woman to have been tried and convicted by the UN court. Teganya, witnesses say, together with his gang, drew lists of Tutsi students at the National University of Rwanda [now University of Rwanda] who would be targeted for killing. He particularly went through hostels on the campus to capture Tutsi students who he would then hand over to Interahamwe militia. Injured Tutsi refugees who sought medical attention at the university hospital – where he was a trainee medic – are said to have also met their death at the hands of Teganya. After his second attempt at securing asylum in Canada failed, Teganya in 2014 crossed into the US through Houlton, Maine, where he encountered US border control officers and requested for asylum. It is reported that he told the US officials that his father had been a senior local leader of the MRND party that masterminded the Genocide, but did not reveal that he, too, was a militia member. The US and Rwanda have no formal extradition treaty but last year, Washington extradited Leopold Munyakazi, a former university professor who had evaded justice for 12 years to answer for crimes such as complicity to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination and genocide negation. “We request all countries that harbour such suspects, again, to send them over here for trial. For the US, it wouldn’t be the first time they have done it. The US should send Teganya to Rwanda for it where he should face trial in the interest of justice as this is where he is alleged to have committed the crimes,” said Jean-Damascene Bizimana, the executive secretary of National Commission for the Fight against Genocide. Bizimana said, by Genocide suspects being tried in Rwanda, it supports the nation’s ideals of unity and reconciliation because it addresses the issue of impunity. Teganya faces up to 10 years in US jail for breach of immigration law if convicted by a Boston federal court. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Prosecutor: Teganya is a wanted Genocide suspect