Boston Jury Convicts Ohio Man of Lying About Role in Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide

A federal jury in Boston on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, convicted Eric Tabaro Nshimiye, a 54-year-old man from Uniontown, Ohio, of lying under oath about his role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the U.S. Justice Department said. Nshimiye, also known as Eric Tabaro Nshimiyimana, was found guilty of four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.

The case grew out of an earlier trial in the same courthouse. According to the Justice Department, the false statements at the center of the verdict were made in 2019, when Nshimiye testified as a defense witness in the Boston trial of Jean Leonard Teganya, a former fellow medical student who was later convicted.

What the jury decided in the Rwanda genocide perjury case

The Justice Department announced the verdict on Wednesday, Oct. 28. According to its release, Nshimiye told the 2019 jury that neither he nor Teganya took part in the genocide and that neither was a member of the MRND, the ruling Hutu-dominated party that the department said “played a critical role in the genocide.” Prosecutors argued those statements were false, and the jury agreed on all five counts.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 26, 2027, before U.S. Senior District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, as reported by Cleveland 19. Each perjury count carries a maximum of five years in prison, and the obstruction count carries a maximum of 10 years. Actual federal sentences are set by the judge under the sentencing guidelines and are usually well below the statutory maximums.

Al Jazeera reported that Nshimiye was originally also charged with fraud related to his immigration paperwork, but prosecutors dropped that charge before trial. Homeland Security investigators arrested him at his Ohio home in 2024; The Boston Globe reported the arrest and charges came in March 2024.

The government’s evidence at trial

According to the evidence the Justice Department described, Nshimiye was a medical student at the University of Rwanda in Butare in the early 1990s and took part in attacks on Tutsi men and women, including striking victims on the head with a club. One witness, who was 17 at the time, testified that he saw Nshimiye club to death a tailor who worked at the university hospital, the department said.

Other witnesses testified that Nshimiye took part in roadblocks where Tutsis were separated out to be killed, and that he was an MRND member who attended political rallies and wore the party’s distinctive clothing, according to the release. Prosecutors said Nshimiye fled Rwanda in the summer of 1994 for Kenya, was admitted to the United States as a refugee in 1995 without disclosing his role, and later gave false information to obtain permanent residence and citizenship. He has lived and worked in Ohio since 1995, the department said; the Globe reported he worked as an engineer.

“For nearly three decades, this defendant concealed his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the heinous acts of violence he committed, including clubbing people to death,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the release.

Link to the 2019 Teganya trial in Boston

The United States charged Teganya in 2017 with fraudulently seeking asylum by concealing his MRND membership and involvement in the genocide. A Boston jury convicted him in April 2019 of two counts of immigration fraud and three counts of perjury, according to the Justice Department. The Boston Globe reported that Teganya was sentenced to eight years in prison. Nshimiye’s testimony on Teganya’s behalf at that trial is the basis for the new conviction.

Background: the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi

The killings began in April 1994 after the plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu president was shot down over Kigali. The Justice Department release says members of the Hutu majority and those aligned with them killed approximately 800,000 Tutsis in about 100 days. The United Nations notes that moderate Hutu and others who opposed the genocide were also killed, and the UN General Assembly designated April 7 as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

U.S. prosecutors have used immigration fraud and perjury laws against people accused of hiding a role in the genocide, because the U.S. cases in Boston turned on false statements made in America rather than on the killings themselves. The Boston Report covers federal court cases in Boston and developments in the Great Lakes region of Africa, including recent U.S. sanctions on Rwanda’s Defense Ministry over M23 support and Congo’s appeal to Russia over Rwanda.

What happens next

Nshimiye is due back before Judge Saylor for sentencing on Jan. 26, 2027. The court record and any post-trial motions will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Coverage of the defense’s response was not included in the Justice Department release, and The Boston Report will update this story if his lawyers comment or file an appeal.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs: “Ohio Man Convicted for Lying About His Involvement in the Rwandan Genocide” (Oct. 28, 2026)
• The Boston Globe: Boston jury convicts Ohio man of lying about involvement in Rwandan genocide
• Cleveland 19 (WOIO): Federal jury convicts Uniontown man
• Al Jazeera: US jury convicts Rwandan American of lying about role in genocide

Additional sources

• BBC News: Eric Nshimiye convicted in US
• United Nations Outreach Programme on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda