US judge sentences Rwandan who lied about participation in genocide

A judge for US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on Thursday sentenced a man who lied about his participation in the Rwandan genocide to 15 years imprisonment followed by deportation. Gervais Ngombwa was convicted on charges of immigration fraud, with the prosecution asserting that Ngombwa was a participant in the genocide and a leader in an extremist Hutu party that actively killed minority Tutsis. He is also under indictment in Rwanda, and Judge Linda Reade decided to let him stand trial in Rwanda on genocide charges after his US prison term. Ngombwa had told authorities that he was subject to persecution in Rwanda as the brother of an exiled Rwandan prime minister, which allowed his family to resettle in the US. Last year two former Rwandan mayors went on trial in the Assize Court of Paris on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The two men, Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi, are accused of "supervis[ing] and participat[ing] in the attack on [Tutsis]," even going as far as killing wounded survivors in a clinic. In January of last year the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda formally closed after issuing 45 judgments. In September 2015 a court in Toulouse, France, refused extradition requests for Joseph Habyarimana, a Rwandan man, facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Source: Jurist.org