Jean Leonard Teganya, a former medical student with a controversial past, has been deported from the United States to Rwanda following accusations that he participated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in his native country. The Rwandan National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) confirmed Teganya's arrival at Kigali International Airport on November 9, 2026. He was handed over to local prosecutors after being accompanied by US security officers.
Teganya, born in 1971, was studying medicine at the National University of Rwanda in Butare during the genocide and was also undergoing practical training at the University Teaching Hospital of Butare. He left Rwanda in July 1994 and traveled through various countries before reaching Canada in 1999. His asylum application in Canada was rejected multiple times, leading him to evade a deportation order and cross into the United States in 2014.
The allegations against Teganya pertain to his conduct at the University Teaching Hospital of Butare during the genocide. According to evidence presented by US prosecutors, he was affiliated with the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) and the Interahamwe militia associated with it. He reportedly led groups of soldiers and Interahamwe members through the hospital to search for Tutsi patients and refugees hiding there, resulting in their deaths behind the maternity ward. The prosecution also linked him to several rapes involving Tutsi women seeking shelter at the hospital and killings of Tutsi individuals at the hospital and university accommodation.
Teganya was not tried for genocide in the United States but was convicted on five counts of immigration fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice. His return to Rwanda allows local authorities to pursue separate allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity that have remained unresolved since 2014. The specific allegations in Rwanda's case against Teganya have not been detailed publicly.