A US jury convicts a Rwandan American man of lying about his role in the 1994 genocide

A federal jury in Boston convicted Eric Nshimiye, 55, of four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. He is a US citizen since 2009.

Background

Prosecutors said he lied in testimony at a 2019 trial of a former medical school roommate, Jean Leonard Teganya, who was later convicted of helping to carry out the genocide.

The defence said Nshimiye was never implicated by tribunals or Rwanda's gacaca courts, and pointed to inconsistencies in witness accounts. His lawyers are asking that the two and a half years he spent in custody count toward any sentence.