A beekeeper living in The Hamptons has been arrested after federal prosecutors say he entered the country claiming to be a victim of the 1994 Rwandan genocide — and was instead a participant.
Faustin Nsabumukunzi was arrested Thursday in New York on immigration fraud charges, according to court documents.
Investigators believe Nsabumukunzi lied and instead helped engineer the Rwandan genocide as an administrator for the municipality of Kibirizi. He pleaded not guilty Thursday, with his 38-year-old son by his side for support, according to The New York Times.
“I know I’m finished,” Nsabumukunzi said as prosecutors read the charges in court Thursday.
Prosecutors say Nsabumukunzi told U.S. immigration officials he was fleeing the Rwandan genocide when he sought refugee status in 2003, when he sought permanent residency in 2006, and when he sought citizenship in 2009.
His second naturalization application is still pending after the first one was denied, court documents indicate.
He could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. However, the 65-year-old may also be deported to Rwanda, where authorities have been seeking him for almost 20 years.
“As alleged, the defendant participated in the commission of heinous acts of violence abroad and then lied his way into a green card and tried to obtain U.S. citizenship,” Department of Justice criminal division chief Matthew R. Galeotti said in a statement. “No matter how much time has passed, the Department of Justice will find and prosecute individuals who committed atrocities in their home countries and covered them up to gain entry and seek citizenship in the United States.”
The Rwandan genocide involved the systematic killing of ethnic minority Tutsis by ethnic majority Hutus over three months in 1994. Hutus killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis, mostly men, and sexually assaulted hundreds of thousands of women.
Defense attorney Evan Sugar told the court that Nsabumukunzi suffers from arthritis and had no financial means to flee the country when he did, according to the Times.
“We’re talking about a 65-year-old with a broken body,” he said.
Nsabumukunzi, as an administrator for Kibirizi, oversaw the killing of Tutsis, prosecutors say in court documents. They say Nsabumukunzi set up roadblocks to detect Tutsis and prevent them from leaving their homes.
In April, he allegedly directed a group of armed Hutu men to kill a group of Tutsis who were near his administrative office, then directed them to remove their dead bodies. Nsabumukunzi also encouraged Hutu men to to rape Tutsi women.
“He was somewhat of a local figurehead,” assistant U.S. attorney Samantha Alessi told the Times.
While in the United States, a Rwandan court convicted Nsabumukunzi in 2008 and sentenced him to life in prison. Prosecutors indicted him again in 2014, and Rwanda’s Interpol bureau issued a notice for him in 2016.
