Australia's prime minister has denied media reports that that two Rwandan refugees resettled in Australia are suspects in the massacre of eight tourists in Uganda 20 years ago.

U.S. news outlet Politico reported on Thursday that former Hutu rebels Leonidas Bimenyimana and Gregoire Nyaminani spent more than a decade in a Virginia state jail before Australia accepted them last year. The transfer was part of a refugee swap deal in which the United States agreed to resettle up to 1,250 refugees who Australia banishes to Pacific island nations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday both men had been cleared of suspicion in the ax and machete slayings of four Britons, two Americans and two New Zealanders who were in Uganda in 1999 to see mountain gorillas.