NEW HAMPSHIRE (Reuters) – A Rwandan woman living in New Hampshire was sentenced to 10 years in jail yesterday for obtaining her US citizenship unlawfully by lying about her role in the 1994 genocide in her central African homeland.
Beatrice Munyenyezi, 43, who has been in the United States since 1998, failed to disclose during her citizenship application that she had been a member of Rwanda’s ruling MRND party, which helped carry out the killing of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
“She has stolen the highly prized status of US citizenship,” District Court Judge Stephen McAuliffe said in a statement issued by the Department of Justice. “The defendant personally participated in the killing of men, women and children, merely because they were called Tutsi.”
Munyenyezi was convicted of lying to federal authorities and stripped of her citizenship earlier this year. She will be deported to Rwanda – where she could face additional charges – after she serves her sentence in the United States. During her trial, witnesses testified that Munyenyezi staffed a roadblock outside her home where she checked IDs and decided who would be allowed to pass, and who would be detained pending almost certain death.
