Wichita ? A federal prosecutor has told jurors that a Kansas man ordered killings during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide then lied about it when he immigrated to the U.S.

Prosecutor Christina Giffin said Friday that Lazare Kobagaya was a Hutu who ordered the killings of Tutsis in a small Rwandan farming community. The government contends he organized roadblocks and hunting parties and told his followers to burn Tutsi houses.

Defense attorney Melanie Morgan says her client is a peaceful man who protected some Tutsi women.

The case hinges on whether the 84-year-old Kobagaya committed atrocities in Rwanda and therefore lied when he told U.S. immigration authorities that he’d never committed a crime. The U.S. Justice Department says it’s the first criminal prosecution in the United States requiring proof of genocide.