A court in Kigali has ruled that a Rwandan woman who was recently deported from the United States for lying about her role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide be remanded for 30 days, a member of his defense team confirmed to APA in Kigali on Tuesday.
According to Pierre Celestin Buhuru, a lawyer in the defense team, his client has initially pleaded not guilty to the alleged crimes and applied for bail.
Announcing the verdict, the presiding judge said that Beatrice Munyenyezi will be provisionally detained on the grounds of the seriousness of crimes she is alleged to have committed.
Munyenyezi, is the wife of Arsene Ntahobali, who, together with his mother Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, were sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for their role in the genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.
Before her deportation, she was in the past sentenced to 10 years for fraudulently obtaining US citizenship and entering the United States and securing citizenship.
During the genocide, according to the prosecution, Munyenyezi who was then living in former Butare prefecture, southern Rwanda would stand on roadblocks and check identifications to identify Tutsis.
According to the accusation file, she was also involved in singling out victims before handing them over to Hutu militias to be killed.
For women, she would first ask the perpetrators to rape them before killing them, according to the accusation against her.
In 2013, Beatrice Munyenyezi was located in the US state of New Hampshire.
CU/as/APA