CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Lawyers for a New Hampshire woman charged with lying about her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide say she is the victim of lies.
Defense Attorney Mark Howard in his opening statements to a federal jury says 41-year-old Beatrice Munyenyezi (moon-yehn-YEH’-zee) played no role in the genocide and did not belong to an extremist militant Hutu political party.
He says Rwanda witnesses now serving life sentences for the killings are motivated to link Munyenyezi to the genocide because they will earn dramatic reductions in their sentences for identifying other participants.
Munyenyezi’s three teenage daughters listened as prosecutor John Capin told jurors their mother ordered the rapes and killings of Tutsis during the three-month genocide that killed 800,000.
Prosecutors say she lied to enter the U.S. and obtain citizenship.
