马萨诸塞州波士顿的一个联邦大陪审团裁定一名卢旺达裔美国男子犯有伪证罪和妨碍司法罪，罪名是他在1994年卢旺达大屠杀中的角色问题上撒谎。
A federal jury in Boston, Massachusetts, has convicted a Rwandan American man of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide Eric Nshimiye, a 55-year-old father of four and a United States citizen, was accused of lying in his testimony in a 2019 trial, also in Boston, for Jean Leonard Teganya, a former medical school roommate who was later convicted of helping to perpetrate the genocide.
现年55岁、四个孩子的父亲、美国公民埃里克·恩希米耶被指控在2019年同样在波士顿举行的一场审判中作伪证。那场审判的被告是让·莱昂纳德·特加尼亚，他是恩希米耶以前的医学院室友，后来因协助实施大屠杀而被定罪。当时，恩希米耶向法庭表示，他和朋友都没有参与在布塔雷对图西族人的杀戮和强奸，两人当时在那里的一所医科大学学习。
At the time, Nshimiye told the court neither he nor his friend had taken part in the killing and rape of Tutsis in Butare, where the pair were studying at a medical university. Investigators from the US Department of Homeland Security arrested Nshimiye at his home in Ohio in 2024, alleging he had lied to them in an interview about his time in Rwanda during the genocide.
美国国土安全部的调查人员于2024年在俄亥俄州的家中逮捕了恩希米耶，指控他在一次关于他在大屠杀期间在卢旺达经历的访谈中向他们撒谎。
Nshimiye was originally charged with multiple counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and committing fraud on his immigration paperwork because prosecutors said he had told immigration officials he did not take part in the genocide when he moved to the US several years after the violence.
恩希米耶最初被控多项伪证罪、妨碍司法罪以及在移民文件上欺诈罪，因为检察官称他在暴力事件结束几年后移居美国时，曾告诉移民官员他没有参与大屠杀。他于2009年成为美国公民。
He became a US citizen in 2009.
检察官在审判开始前撤销了移民欺诈指控。周二，陪审团裁定恩希米耶四项伪证罪和一项妨碍司法罪成立。
The immigration charge was dropped by prosecutors before the trial began. On Tuesday, the jury convicted Nshimiye on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.
“近三十年来，这名被告隐瞒了他参与1994年卢旺达种族灭绝以及他所犯下的极其恶劣暴力行为，包括用棍棒将人打死，”司法部刑事司助理部长A·泰森·杜瓦周三在一份声明中说。“随后，他向移民官员撒谎以成为美国公民，又向联邦陪审团撒谎以保护自己和一名卢旺达种族灭绝的同案犯。”
“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 in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division said in a statement on Wednesday. “Then, he lied to immigration officials in order to become a US citizen, and he lied to a federal jury to protect himself and a fellow perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide.”
裁决宣读后，恩希米耶的律师向法院提交请求，要求将他在审判前已在狱中度过的时间计入刑期。在法庭文件中，律师辩称恩希米耶应被释放，因为他已羁押了两年半，超过了他被定罪指控的通常量刑标准。
After the verdict, Nshimiye’s attorneys filed a request with the court to count the time he had already spent in prison before the trial towards any sentence. In a court filing, the attorneys argued Nshimiye should be set free because the two and a half years he had already spent in custody were longer than the usual sentence for the charges he was convicted of.
恩希米耶的家人，包括其在美国出生的子女，在法庭宣读裁决时在场旁听。
Nshimiye’s family, including his US-born children, were in attendance when the verdict was announced in court.
“相当震惊，起初难以接受，因为我们预期会有不同的结果。我们预期能把他带回家，”他的儿子特雷佐·恩希米耶对半岛电视台说。
“It was quite shocking, difficult to process at first because we were expecting a different outcome. We were expecting to bring him home,” his son Tresor Nshimiye, told Al Jazeera.
检方传唤了一系列专家帮助陪审团了解卢旺达罪行的范围，首先是学者指出卢旺达在非洲地图上的位置。
Prosecutors brought a series of experts to help the jury understand the scope of the crimes in Rwanda, starting with academics who pointed out where the country was on a map of Africa.
来自卢旺达的证人告诉陪审团，他们回忆恩希米耶参与了1994年在布塔雷针对少数图西族人的杀戮和其他暴力行为。这些行为是全国范围内由强硬派多数胡图族发动的种族灭绝暴力浪潮的一部分，在约100天内造成80多万人丧生。其他人称，恩希米耶是亲胡图族的全国革命发展运动和“因特拉哈姆韦”民兵组织的成员，后者被指责为种族灭绝期间大多数杀戮的实施者。
Witnesses from Rwanda told jurors they recalled Nshimiye taking part in killings and other violence in Butare directed at minority Tutsis in 1994. They were part of a nationwide outbreak of genocidal violence by hardline majority Hutus that killed more than 800,000 people over about 100 days. Others said Nshimiye was part of the pro-Hutu National Revolutionary Movement for Development and the Interahamwe, the paramilitary group blamed for most of the killings during the genocide.
辩方主张，恩希米耶在种族灭绝结束后，从未被国内和国际法庭起诉，包括卢旺达国际刑事法庭，以及卢旺达国内一种名为“加卡查”的非正式过渡性司法体系，该体系曾审判一百多万人在暴行中的角色。
The defence argued Nshimiye had never been implicated in domestic and international tribunals after the genocide, including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as well as an informal transitional justice system inside Rwanda, called gacaca, which tried more than a million people for their roles in the atrocities.
辩方律师指出政府证人证词中明显的不一致之处，并传唤其他证人，他们称恩希米耶在种族灭绝期间与他们在一起，地点包括首都基加利和该国其他地区。
Defence lawyers pointed out apparent inconsistencies in government witnesses’ testimonies and brought other witnesses who said Nshimiye was with them in the capital, Kigali, and other parts of the country during the genocide.
恩希米耶的律师还在法庭上辩称，卢旺达当局干涉了调查，因为他们在一些证人于波士顿作证前曾与这些证人会面。
Nshimiye’s attorneys also argued in court that Rwandan authorities had interfered with the investigation because they had met with some witnesses before they testified in Boston.
“归根结底，只是两个相互竞争的故事，而由于这一切发生在30年左右以前，太多东西已经失落。……我想陪审团更相信检方证人的说法，因为他们在故事中将自己描绘成了受害者，”特雷索·恩希米耶说。
“At the end of the day, it was just two competing stories, and so much is lost with this all happening 30 years or so ago. … I guess the jury was more convinced of the prosecutor’s witnesses because they victimised themselves in their stories,” Tresor Nshimiye said.
恩希米耶的案件是目前美国正在进行的几起与卢旺达种族灭绝有关的案件之一。
Nshimiye’s case is one of several currently under way in the US related to the Rwandan genocide.
2025年4月，检方起诉了65岁的养蜂人福斯坦·恩萨布穆库恩齐，他居住在纽约州长岛，曾申请美国公民身份，指控他同样隐瞒了自己在暴力事件中的角色。2025年6月，当局起诉了65岁的文森特·恩齐吉伊姆富拉，他居住在俄亥俄州代顿，也曾申请美国公民身份，指控他隐瞒了自己在种族灭绝中的角色。这两人此前均曾被卢旺达当局公开列为通缉犯。
In April 2025, prosecutors charged Faustin Nsabumukunzi, a 65-year-old beekeeper in Long Island, New York, who had applied for US citizenship, with similarly concealing his role in the violence. And in June 2025, authorities charged 65-year-old Vincent Nzigiyimfura of Dayton, Ohio, who had also applied for US citizenship, with concealing his role in the genocide. Both men were previously listed publicly as fugitives by Rwandan authorities.