Rwandan government critic Paul Rusesabagina has arrived in the United States after his release from prison. “We’re glad he’s back on US soil,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Twitter yesterday (local time). The 68-year-old Rusesabagina, who became known worldwide through the film “Hotel Rwanda”, was released from custody in Rwanda about a week ago.
Rusesabagina had spent a total of 939 days in prison. He was arrested in Rwanda in August 2020 when his plane bound for Burundi was diverted to neighboring Rwanda.
For UN “kidnapping”
The UN had criticized this procedure as “kidnapping”. In September 2021, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for “terrorism” in a controversial trial. The prosecution had accused him of having supported an armed rebel group.
Negotiations to release the opposition politician began at the end of 2022, and last week there was a breakthrough in talks between Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and the Emir of Qatar.
Rusesabagina achieved international fame through the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda”. The film is about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Around 800,000 people were killed at that time, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic group. Rusesabagina saved almost 1,200 lives as director of a luxury hotel in the capital Kigali. From 1996 Rusesabagina lived in exile in Belgium and the USA.
