In the trial of Suspected Rwandan genocide fugitive Beatrice Munyenyezi at New Hampshire court, the Federal Judge declared a mistrial in her case.
Munyenyezi is accused of obtaining US citizenship by denying her role in the 1994 Rwanda Tutsi genocide in which a million lives were lost.
Last week the Jurors had said that they couldn’t agree on the two counts in the case of Beatrice Munyenyezi after nearly 19 hours of deliberations over several days. Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe instructed them to try to reach a unanimous verdict.
But they again deadlocked. Jurors sent out at note at about 3:20 p.m. saying they could not reach unanimous verdicts and all agreed that no consensus would be reached through further deliberations.
“You have not failed your duty as jurors,” Judge McAuliffe told them. “Sometimes no decision is the right decision.”
All 12 jurors after being dismissed declined to comment on the case or whether the majority was for guilt or innocence. Lawyers on both sides said they had not been told what the split was.
Munyenyezi, 42, who became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and moved to Manchester, did not testify during her 12-day federal trial. She had faced deportation to Rwanda if convicted, and her citizenship would automatically be stripped.
Munyenyezi buried her face in her hands when the jury foreman announced the outcome but did not cry. She remained stoic.
Estimates in costs of prosecuting and defending Munyenyezi thus far totals nearly $3 million. More than a dozen witnesses and defense investigators were flown in from Rwanda and housed in hotels.
Three interpreters of Kinyarwandan were hired and housed. Investigators from both sides made trips to Rwanda to prepare for trial.
Prosecutors say Munyenyezi was an extremist Hutu who killed and ordered the rapes of untold Tutsi victims — not the innocent refugee she claimed to be in 1995, when she applied for a visa and later when she applied for and obtained citizenship in 2003.
To prove Munyenyezi lied on her immigration and naturalization papers, prosecutors had to convince the jury she took an active part in the genocide, contrary to sworn statements on the federal forms.
The only other similar trial in the U.S. involving immigration fraud related to the Rwanda genocide ended in a hung jury last May in Kansas.
Prosecution witnesses testified they saw her direct rapes and killings, but her relatives testified they never saw that, nor did they see her carry a gun or wear a military uniform.
They said Munyenyezi, who was pregnant with twins at the time, mostly stayed inside the family-owned hotel that prosecutors said was the scene of the some of the brutality.
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