A 65-year-old Rwandan man has been indicted for lying about his role in the country's 1994 genocide to try to obtain US citizenship, the Justice Department said Friday.
Vincent Nzigiyimfura, also known as Vincent Mfura, of Dayton, Ohio, faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of visa fraud and attempted naturalization fraud.
According to the indictment, Nzigiyimfura was involved in the ethnic violence in his homeland in which the United Nations said some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.
It alleges that Nzigiyimfura was an organizer of the genocide against Tutsis in the area in and around Gihisi and Nyanza, providing weapons and transportation to other Hutus.
"Nzigiyimfura directed and encouraged murders during the genocide in Rwanda and then lied to US authorities to start a new life in this country," Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement.
"The United States is not a safe haven for human rights violators," Galeotti added.
According to the indictment, Nzigiyimfura, while living in Malawi in 2008 and 2009, submitted an application for a US immigrant visa and lied on the form.
Nzigiyimfura, who has been living in the United States since 2009, allegedly repeated those false statements while seeking later to become a naturalized US citizen.
