Paul Rusesabagina (67) was celebrated as “Oskar Schindler of Africa”. He saved the lives of 1268 people during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and gave them shelter in his luxury hotel. The story of the hotelier came into cinemas in 2005 as “Hotel Rwanda”, and US President George W. Bush awarded him a medal.
On Monday a court in Rwanda found government critic Paul Rusesabagina guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to 25 years in prison!
“He founded a terrorist organization that attacked Rwanda and financially supported terrorist activities,” said Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi after a trial that Rusesabagina’s supporters denounced as politically motivated.
Rusesabagina had financially and logistically supported the armed wing of an opposition movement he co-founded, the court said during the verdict in Kigali. This armed wing, the National Liberation Front (FLN), was responsible for deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019, it said.
Human rights activists, the US and the EU Parliament had expressed doubts about a fair trial. The ex-hotelier is known as a severe critic of the Rwandan President Paul Kagame (63).
November 2005: The then US President George W. Bush presents Paul Rusesabagina with a medalPhoto: Reuters
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded life imprisonment for Rusesabagina. Neither the “Hotel Rwanda” hero nor his lawyers were present at the court’s verdict. In March he announced that he would no longer participate in the process. In addition to Rusesabagina, 20 other people were charged.
Since 1996 he lived in exile in the USA and Belgium. In August of last year, he was arrested under suspicious circumstances in Rwanda when he stepped off a plane that he believed was to land in neighboring Burundi.
In 1994, more than 800,000 people died within a few weeks during the genocide in Rwanda. Most of the victims belonged to the Tutsi minority, but Hutus were also killed by representatives of the Hutu majority. Rusesabagina, a Hutu, was director of the “Hotel des Mille Collines” in Kigali at the time.