Prosecutors: Long Island Beekeeper Hid Role in Genocide

In 2003, Faustin Nsabumukunzi applied for refugee status in the US, settling in the Hamptons on Long Island and resuming the beekeeping he'd done in his native Rwanda. He eventually received a green card and applied for US citizenship. But federal prosecutors now say Nsabumukunzi harbored a "dark secret," per the New York Times: He'd lied to US officials during his various application processes about his involvement in the brutal Rwandan genocide.

• Details: Per a DOJ release, the 65-year-old on Tuesday was indicted in Central Islip court for lying about his role as a "Sector Counselor" in his home country around April 1994, during which time prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York say he participated in the "violence" and "genocidal killings" carried out by the majority Hutu population against the minority Tutsis, per USA Today.

• More: Not only did Nsabumukunzi direct others to murder Tutsis, according to prosecutors—he personally went after them himself with a club and called the dead bodies of Tutsis "trash," per the Times. When investigators traveled to Rwanda last fall to learn more about the ethnic cleansing, locals told them that Nsabumukunzi had helped organize a three-month-long massacre that led to the deaths of around 800,000 Tutsis—even tricking Tutsis into staying in his Kibirizi municipality by assuring their safety, then later directing Hutus to slaughter them, say prosecutors. He also allegedly encouraged the rape of Tutsi women.
• Lying by omission? There was no mention of any of those allegations when Nsabumukunzi applied for (and received) his US green card in 2007, and again when he applied for US citizenship in both 2009 and 2015.

• Lawyer's take: Nsabumukunzi's attorney, Evan Sugar, says evidence against Nsabumukunzi is murky, and that his client never saw an indictment for genocide from the UN's international court. "We're talking about a 65-year-old with a broken body," Sugar says of Nsabumukunzi, who in arguing for his bond release, claimed suffers from arthritis and has no money to flee the country. Nsabumukunzi was, however, convicted of genocide in absentia in a Rwandan court.
• Next: In Long Island court on Thursday, Nsabumukunzi pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bond, which was put up by a private equity entrepreneur who employs Nsabumukunzi as a gardener. He's on home detention and must wear a GPS monitor. If convicted of visa fraud and naturalization fraud, Nsabumukunzi could see up to 30 years in prison.
• Feds: "For over two decades, he got away with those lies and lived in the United States with an undeserved clean slate, a luxury that his victims will never have, but thanks to the tenacious efforts of our investigators and prosecutors, the defendant finally will be held accountable for his brutal actions," says US Attorney John J. Durham, per the release.
• Nsabumukunzi's take: "I know I'm finished," the Rwandan national, who was profiled nearly two decades ago in the Times, said in court on Thursday.

(More Rwanda stories.)