A Rwandan beekeeper living in the US has been arrested over his alleged involvement in the 1994 genocide in his country.
Faustin Nsabumukunzi is accused of committing “heinous acts of violence abroad” when he served as a local leader at the start of genocide, the Justice Department said.
The 65-year-old suspect was also charged with visa fraud and attempted naturalisation fraud when he moved to the US in 2003. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on bail.
“Nsabumukunzi repeatedly lied to conceal his involvement in the horrific Rwandan genocide while seeking to become a lawful permanent resident and citizen of the United States,” said John Durham, a federal prosecutor.
In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists.
The mainly Tutsi forces who took power following the genocide were alleged to have killed thousands of Hutu people in Rwanda in retaliation.
Nsabumukunzi is alleged to have set up roadblocks during the genocide to detain and kill Tutsis and to have participated in killings, prosecutors said, citing witnesses.
“Nsabumukunzi used his leadership position to oversee the violence and killings of Tutsis in his local area and directed groups of armed Hutus to kill Tutsis,” the federal prosecutors said.
He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison in absentia by a Rwandan genocide court, according to US legal papers.
The suspect was arrested on Thursday at his home in Bridgehampton, New York, where he had settled as a gardener and beekeeper in an exclusive enclave on Long Island, according to the US media.
Prosecutors said he had lied to US officials in his immigration application, including by falsely denying any involvement as a perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide when he sought refugee status in 2003.
He allegedly repeated those lies in his subsequent applications for a green card and naturalisation.
“For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate,” said prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.
He pleaded not guilty and was released on a bond of $250,000 (£188,000).
The bail package requires home detention and GPS monitoring, but he will be allowed to continue working as a gardener.
Nsabumukunzi faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, if convicted.
In Rwanda, Nsabumukunzi oversaw 150 beekeepers and 1,500 hives, according to the New York Times which profiled him in 2006.
In the US, he oversaw about 100 hives for the Hamptons Honey Company, which had hired him to scale up its production, the report said.
Gabriel Alfaya, the owner of Hamptons Honey since 2009, said he was unaware that Nsabumukunzi had worked for the company and had never met him, the New York Times reported.
Nsabumukunzi’s lawyer, Evan Sugar, described his client as “a law-abiding beekeeper and gardener”, in an interview with the AP news agency.
The lawyer said Nsabumukunzi was “a victim of the Rwandan genocide who lost scores of family members and friends to the violence”.
He said his client was rightfully granted refugee status and lawful permanent residence and planned to “fight these 30-year-old allegations” while maintaining his innocence.
Several people who fled Rwanda to other countries have been arrested on charges related to the killings, as the East African country continues to pursue more genocide suspects from their safe havens abroad.
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