Paul Russesabaginathe man who inspired the protagonist of the Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda”, he was released from prison as an opponent of the Rwandan government. It is now in the ambassador’s residence Qatar waiting for the leave United States, where he lived before he was tried. In 1994, the year of the Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina, who ran a hotel in the capital Kigali, took in 1,200 people and saved them from death. In a genocide that claimed 800,000 victims. The American film that tells the story of those days of the massacre dates from 2004.
And from the US comes a thank you. “We applaud the release of Paul Rusesabagina by the Government of Rwanda. It is a relief to know that Paul is reunited with his family and the U.S. Government is grateful to the Government of Rwanda for making this reunion possible. We thank you also to the Government of Rwanda-Qatar for the invaluable assistance that will enable Paul’s return to the United States,” said the Secretary of State Anton Blinken.
Rusesabagina was pardoned by the Rwandan President Paul Kagam after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism offenses in 2021. The plane that was supposed to take him to neighboring Burundi in August 2020 ended up in Kigali instead: his family and lawyers described it as a “kidnapping”.
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On September 20, 2021, the Kigali Supreme Court for International and Transnational Crimes found him guilty of founding and financing the FLN, the armed wing of his party, the Movement for Democratic Change in Rwanda (MRCD). The court handed down a 25-year sentence in a charge condemned by NGOs including Amnesty International.
Qatar has a mediating role in the release of the 68-year-old former manager, Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said, and mediation has also been confirmed by the US government.