Rwandan woman who was deported from the United States three years ago has been handed a life sentence for her involvement in the country’s 1994 genocide, as reported by The New Times newspaper on Saturday.
Beatrice Munyenyezi, 54, was found guilty by a court in the southern town of Huye of murder as a genocide crime, complicity in genocide, incitement to commit genocide, and complicity in rape.
Despite being acquitted on a charge of planning genocide, Munyenyezi faced severe sentencing for her role in the atrocities that took place during the genocide.
The sentencing of Munyenyezi comes in the wake of Rwanda commemorating 30 years since the genocide perpetrated by the extremist Hutu regime between April and July 1994.
During this period, over 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus, were killed, according to a UN tally. Munyenyezi denied all charges against her, but the court ruled that she was complicit in ordering and committing murders and attacks, including the rape of a nun on her orders.
Dubbed the “commander,” Munyenyezi was reported to have supervised a roadblock in Huye, formerly known as Butare, where she identified Tutsis and ordered their killings.
Additionally, she allegedly encouraged Hutu extremists to commit acts of rape against women.
Munyenyezi’s deportation from the United States in April 2021 followed a ten-year prison sentence for lying about her involvement in the genocide while applying for American citizenship, citing persecution in her home country.
The case garnered attention in the United States due to Munyenyezi’s familial ties to other individuals involved in the genocide.
Her mother-in-law, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a former minister in the genocidal regime, and her husband, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, a former local militia leader, were also tried for genocide crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania.
In 2011, they were sentenced to life in prison, though their terms were later reduced to 47 years on appeal.
