Federal prosecutors are gearing up for the second trial of a Manchester woman accused of lying about her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide so she could enter the United States and become a citizen.
Prosecutors say 43-year-old Beatrice Munyenyezi ordered the rapes and murders of Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the 1994 genocide
However Relatives testified she was pregnant and ill and holed up in a Butare hotel owned by her husband’s family during the time prosecutors say she was manning a checkpoint outside the hotel and designating who should die.
The second trial of Munyenyezi case is scheduled to begin Feb. 4.
Defense attorney Mark Howard, who said he has seen the prosecution’s witness list for the upcoming trial, said most of the government’s Rwanda witnesses will be new.
Munyenyezi has declined to talk about the case in the past and her lawyers did not immediately respond to a recent request from the Associated Press for an interview.
She did not testify at her first trial.
Munyenyezi’s husband, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, and his mother were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda and sentenced to life in prison in June 2011 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes of violence.
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