The deportation of Jean-Léonard Teganya from the United States to Rwanda is another step towards accountability for perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, says the Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement Jean-Damascène Bizimana.

Teganya, 55, arrived at Kigali International Airport this week, on November 9, after being deported by US authorities. He was handed over to Rwandan authorities and arrested over allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Reacting to his return, Bizimana described Teganya as a notorious genocidaire who participated in the extermination of Tutsi in Butare during the Genocide. He said Teganya had believed that fleeing Rwanda for the United States would shield him from justice, but that his calculations had failed.

"He must now face the consequences of his crimes," the minister said.

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Teganya's return follows the deportation and extradition of other people accused or convicted of involvement in the Genocide from the United States and several other countries. Bizimana said such judicial outcomes serve a wider purpose beyond bringing individual perpetrators to account.

Bizimana acknowledged that Teganya killed and raped Tutsi women and girls during the Genocide, describing his actions as marked by "fury, hatred, and cruelty."

The minister said accounts from survivors of Teganya's alleged atrocities were "profoundly damning and terrifying", adding that his methods of killing were horrific.

Teganya was a medical student at the Faculty of Medicine of the former National University of Rwanda in Butare in 1994. He was also undertaking practical training at the University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB).

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Evidence presented during his US trial included allegations that he was affiliated with the then-ruling MRND and the Interahamwe militia. Prosecutors presented evidence that he led groups of soldiers and Interahamwe members through CHUB to search for Tutsi patients and refugees hiding there.

Those found were taken away and killed behind the hospital's maternity ward, according to the prosecution's account. Evidence presented at the trial also linked him to the killing of Tutsi patients and students, as well as the rape of two Tutsi women who had sought shelter at the hospital.

The allegations formed part of evidence in the US case, which concerned immigration fraud and perjury.

Bizimana also drew attention to the meaning of Teganya's name, saying it implies "save for the future", "plan ahead" or "be vigilant in all your undertakings".

The minister said Teganya appeared to have forgotten the meaning of his own name, given that he had acted without considering that his crimes could eventually catch up with him.

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Teganya was born in 1971 in Gatumba Sector, Ngororero District, in Western Province. He was living in Butare, now Huye District, and studying medicine at the former National University of Rwanda when the Genocide began.

He left Rwanda in July 1994, near the end of the Genocide, and travelled through what was then Zaire, now DR Congo, as well as Kenya and India, before reaching Canada in 1999.

He applied for asylum in Canada, but his application was rejected in 2002 and again in 2012. After years of proceedings, he evaded a deportation order and crossed into the United States on foot on August 3, 2014, near Houlton, Maine.

Rwanda's National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) indicted him in 2014 over alleged genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the former Butare prefecture.

In September 2017, Teganya was indicted by the US on two counts of immigration fraud and three counts of perjury over false statements made in connection with his application for immigration benefits.

A federal jury found him guilty on all five counts on April 5, 2019. On July 1 that year, he was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison by US District Judge Denis Saylor IV in Boston, Massachusetts. The judge also found that he had obstructed justice by lying under oath during his testimony.

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His convictions and sentence were upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in May 2021.

The US proceedings dealt with his statements to immigration authorities and did not result in a genocide conviction. Rwanda's case is separate, and his return allows the country's justice system to pursue the allegations brought against him in 2014.

Other genocide suspects returned to Rwanda

Teganya's deportation follows a series of other returns from the United States. He is the eighth genocide fugitive deported by the US to Rwanda since 2007, including Enos Kagaba, deported on April 26, 2005; Jean Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka, on January 28, 2011; Marie Claire Mukeshimana, on December 21, 2011; and Professor Léopold Munyakazi, in September 2016.

The list also includes Béatrice Munyenyezi, deported on April 18, 2021; Oswald Rurangwa, also known as Oswald Rukemuye, on October 7, 2021; and Ahmed Napoléon Mbonyunkiza, on March 10, 2025.

Read the original article on New Times.

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