U.S. Extradites Professor to Rwanda to Face Genocide Accusations

U.S. officials on Wednesday handed over a Baltimore professor to Rwandan authorities as part of an extradition request dating back to 2008. Leopold Munyakazi, 65, a Rwandan academic who fled to the U.S. in 2004 and taught French at a Baltimore college, is accused of playing a major role in the Rwandan genocide. Authorities in Rwanda say Munyakazi served as a major ideologue in the genocide in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, a claim Munyakazi has consistently denied. The Rwandan government has had arrest warrants out for Munyakazi since 2006, though he spent years appealing extradition requests, saying he’d be tortured if he returned. Munyakazi is accused of personally killing a man, Félicien Ugirashebuja, as well as overseeing roadblocks where Tutsis were identified to be killed. Prosecutors also say Munyakazi delivered a speech in 1994 calling for Tutsis to be killed.