Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda and is a fierce opponent of President Paul Kagame, was released on Friday after the government announced it had commuted his 25-year sentence for “terrorism.” Rusesabagina, who holds Belgian citizenship and is a permanent resident of the United States, was handed over to the Qatari ambassador before his return to the United States, a US official said.
The opponent “is at the residence of the Qatari ambassador,” said that official. Washington is “grateful” to Rwanda for releasing him, said US diplomat chief Antony Blinken.
Belgium also welcomed “the Rwandan government’s decision to grant Paul Rusesabagina a writ”. “We hope that he will be reunited with his family soon,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said in a statement.
International Condemnation
Paul Rusesabagina’s September 2021 sentencing had drawn international disapproval and legal defenders. “The sentences of Paul Rusesabagina and (his co-defendant) Callixte Nsabimana have been commuted by presidential order after their appeals for clemency have been reviewed,” Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told AFP.
The convictions of 18 other people on terrorism charges have also been commuted, she added. The other detainees were due to be released on Saturday, according to a government source who asked not to be identified.
Yolande Makolo specified that Rwanda “notes the constructive role played by the American government in creating the conditions for dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by Qatar”. But she added that “no one should be under any illusions about this because there is consensus that serious crimes have been committed for which they have been convicted”.
“Shared desire” to restart relationship with Washington
This case has long been a point of contention between Kigali and Washington. In May 2022, Washington believed he had been “wrongly detained” by the Rwandan judiciary, and Kagame replied that the United States could not “intimidate” him to force his release.
This decision “is the result of a shared desire to reshape US-Rwanda relations,” Presidential Press Secretary Stéphanie Nyombayire said on Twitter. According to a senior US official on condition of anonymity, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s August visit to Kigali “played a key role in the prospect of Paul’s eventual release.” For her part, Stéphanie Nyombayire stressed that “the close ties between Rwanda and Qatar were crucial”.
Talks to release the opponent began in late 2022, and talks between President Kagame and the Emir of Qatar reached a breakthrough last week, a source familiar with the matter said.
Kigali’s announcement comes nearly two weeks after President Kagame indicated during a visit to Qatar that “talks” were underway to detain Paul Rusesabagina.
Adversary supporters believe his trial was a sham trial fraught with irregularities. And his family drew attention to the deteriorating health of the 68-year-old. According to the Free Rusesabagina website, he was detained for 939 days.
“International Standards”
Paul Rusesabagina is best known for his 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, which tells the story of how this moderate Hutu, who ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in the Rwandan capital, saved more than 1,000 people during the 1994 Tutsi genocide.
Rusesabagina, an opponent of Paul Kagame for more than 20 years, whom he accuses of authoritarianism and stoking anti-Hutu sentiment, has used his Hollywood fame to give his positions a global echo. His tirades against Kagame have earned him treatment as an enemy of the state.
Human rights defenders have accused Rwanda – which has been ruled with an iron fist by Mr Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people – of stifling freedom of expression and opposition.
Paul Rusesabagina had lived in exile in the United States and Belgium since 1996 before he was arrested in 2020 in difficult circumstances in Kigali after stepping off a plane he believed was bound for Burundi. “His release would close a case that underscores Rwanda’s blatant disregard for international standards,” Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told AFP earlier in the day.
The opponent was tried from February to July 2021 on nine counts including “terrorism” for attacks by the FLN, a Kigali-designated terrorist organization that killed nine people in 2018 and 2019. Paul Rusesabagina admitted that he helped found the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD) in 2017, of which the FLN is an armed wing, but has always denied any involvement in the attacks.