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A federal trial has begun in Boston for a Rwandan-American man accused of lying to cover up his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Getting into it: Prosecutors say Eric Nshimiye, a 55-year-old father of four from Ohio, took part in the killing and rape of Tutsis while he was a medical student in the town of Butare during the genocide, when Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 people over about 100 days. Federal agents arrested him at his home in 2024, accusing him of lying to immigration officials to get into the US and later become a citizen in 2009, and of committing perjury at a 2019 Boston trial where he testified on behalf of his friend and former classmate Jean Leonard Teganya, who was later convicted of concealing his own role in the genocide.

Investigators allege Nshimiye attacked Tutsis with a nail-studded club and a machete, including killing a 14-year-old boy. He faces charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and concealing material facts, and could lose his citizenship if convicted.

Nshimiye, who has been held without bail since his arrest, says he was visiting Kigali, the capital, when the killings started, couldn’t get back to Butare, and left Rwanda as a refugee. More than a dozen witnesses are expected to testify for the prosecution, most of them brought in from Rwanda.

“He himself attacked Tutsis, and handed Tutsis over to be killed and raped,” Assistant US Attorney Christopher Looney told the court.

His defense says the case rests entirely on eyewitnesses, noting that some picked him out only after seeing his photo multiple times while others have changed their stories across earlier genocide trials.

This all comes as courts in other countries continue pursuing genocide suspects decades later, with France set to try trader Safari Madjaliwa on genocide charges next month and the UK prosecuting former Rwandan official Vincent Brown in its first case tied to the genocide, with his trial set for October 2027.