A Rwandan farmer showed jurors the scar left on his leg by a U.S. resident he alleges threatened to kill him if he did not kill ethnic Tutsis during the African nation’s 1994 genocide.
Emmanuel Nzabandora testified Wednesday in the trial of 84-year-old Lazare Kobagaya, of Topeka, on charges of lying to U.S. immigration officials about his involvement in the ethnic slaughter.
Nzabandora testified two other men had beaten him because he refused to kill. He said Kobagaya then stabbed him with a knife concealed in a cane. He says he later clubbed a Tutsi man to death while Kobagaya and others watched.
He also alleged Kobagaya had earlier offered a man beer to kill a Hutu who refused to his Tutsi relatives’ homes. He said that man immediately killed the Hutu.
Meanwhile, Kobayaga’s lawyers want to bar testimony by a Rwandan woman about the killings of her husband and children.
Defense lawyers contend the testimony of Valerie Niyitegeka is irrelevant because she wasn’t present when her husband and children were killed. The defense argues the only purpose of her testimony would be to present her heartbreak so the jury will decide the case on emotion.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot planned to listen to her testimony today outside the jury’s presence before deciding if the jury will hear it.
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