US dismisses Rwanda genocide immigration case

WICHITA- An elderly Rwandan immigrant accused of genocide reacted with joy Thursday to news that the US government has dismissed all charges against him, his lawyer said.

Lazare Kobagaya, 84, “can live out his days as a grandfather in Topeka, Kansas, and watch his great-grandchildren grow up,” defense attorney Kurt Kerns said.

“He won’t be deported. He won’t be jailed. He won’t be put on probation. His life is basically restored.”

US prosecutors had charged Kobagaya with lying about his actions during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in order to gain entry to the United States and eventual citizenship.

While he cannot be tried in a US court for crimes committed in Rwanda, Kobagaya could be deported if convicted of lying to immigration officials when he denied participating in genocide.

His family said that deportation to Rwanda is tantamount to a death sentence.

In May, jurors found that Kobagaya made a false statement on his visa application about his whereabouts in 1994.

They deadlocked over whether he misled officials on a citizenship application by denying he took part in genocide.

On Thursday, however, prosecutors filed a motion seeking to set aside the verdict and dismiss all charges against Kobagaya.

Prosecutors said they had failed to inform defense attorneys of an immigration official’s statement that Kobagaya’s mere presence in Rwanda in 1994 would not have barred him from entering the United States.

Judge Monti Belot granted the motion to throw out the case against him.

The investigation and trial, which involved sending investigators to Africa and bringing witnesses from Africa to Wichita, is estimated to have cost between one and two million dollars, Kerns said.

“Do I think it was a huge waste of money to prosecute this case in the first place?” Kerns said. “Yes, I do.”

The 1994 Rwandan genocide saw an estimated 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis killed by Hutus in a roughly 100-day period.

Kobagaya was a Burundi native and ethnic Hutu living in neighboring Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

During his trial, some witnesses testified that he led the killing of ethnic Tutsi residents of Rwanda, but other witnesses contradicted those statements.

Kobagaya became a US citizen in 2006. He came to the attention of US officials after giving a statement in support of a former neighbor on trial for genocide in Finland.

Kerns said the erroneous visa application was actually filled out by one of Kobagaya’s sons.

Kobagaya has 11 sons and daughters, all but one of whom live in the United States, along with numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Kerns said. “The family reaction was overwhelming joy and a great sense of relief that the case has finally come to a close,” Kerns said.