As of: 09/20/2021 2:36 p.m.
In Rwanda, the government critic and hero of the internationally acclaimed film “Hotel Rwanda”, Rusesabagina, has been found guilty of terrorism. His supporters had denounced the process as politically motivated.
The Rwandan government critic Paul Rusesabagina, known as the “Hotel Rwanda” hero, has been found guilty of terrorism charges. The 67-year-old offered financial support for terrorist activities, among other things, the criminal chamber for international crimes at the Supreme Court in Kigali said in a verdict transmitted online. Human rights activists questioned the fairness of the trial, which began in February.
The court found it proven that Rusesabagina had provided support to an armed group that killed several civilians in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. Rusesabagina’s lawyers denied the allegations, saying the trial was an excuse to detain a well-known critic of President Paul Kagame. The court has yet to announce the sentence. Rusesabagina was not present during the sentencing.
Trial observers from the US Bar Association had criticized several procedural errors in a report in June. Rusesabagina announced in March that it would no longer take part in the trial. In addition to him, 20 other people had been charged. Rusesabagina’s supporters had denounced the process as politically motivated.
Rusesabagina saved the lives of hundreds of Tutsis
Rusesabagina, a Hutu, gained worldwide fame because, as a manager during the 1994 genocide, he is said to have given shelter to hundreds of Tutsi in his hotel. The events served as a template for the Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda” in 2004.
In the genocide in Rwanda, extremists of the Hutu majority killed around 800,000 members of the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutu between April and July 1994. Paul Kagame and his rebel group RPF overthrew the Hutu extremist regime and ended the genocide. He ruled the country increasingly autocratic to this day.
A sharp critic of Kagame
According to human rights activists, members of the opposition, journalists and government critics are arrested, harassed, persecuted and killed in Rwanda. Rusesabagina is a sharp critic of Kagame and lived in exile, including in the United States, until his arrest.
He was arrested in August 2020. His family said he was abducted in Dubai, but authorities said he was arrested when he entered Rwanda.
Rusesabagina had accused the RPF of having committed serious crimes against the Hutu people during the fighting. He called the Kagame government a dictatorship. In 2011 he was accused of wanting to overthrow the government.