47 minutes ago
Image source, Getty Images
picture description,
Paul Rusesabagina pictured in front of a Rwandan court in 2021 before his sentencing on terrorism charges
Paul Rusesabagina, an outspoken critic of the Rwandan government, has arrived in the US after being released from prison in Kigali, the White House says.
He rose to prominence after being portrayed as a hero of the Rwandan genocide in the 1994 film Hotel Rwanda.
In 2021, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a court in what proponents called a sham trial on terrorism charges.
His release earlier this week followed years of diplomatic pressure from the US government and Qatar-brokered talks.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Mr Rusesabagina was “reunited with his family and friends who have long awaited this day”.
“I am grateful to those with whom we have worked closely in the Rwandan government to make this possible,” he wrote on Twitter.
The former hotel manager was allowed to return to the US – where he has his permanent residence – after his sentence was “commutated by order of the President”, the Rwandan government said upon his release.
In recent years he had become a fierce critic of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, and in a 2018 video message Mr Rusesabagina called for a change of government.
He was arrested in 2020 when a private jet he believed would take him to Burundi landed instead of in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
In September 2021, he was found guilty of supporting a rebel group behind deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019.
The genocide in Rwanda has lasted 100 days since April 1994, when 800,000 people, mostly Tutsi, were massacred by Hutu extremists.
Mr Rusesabagina left Rwanda in 1996 and his story remained largely unknown for a decade while he worked as a taxi driver in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
His story was featured in a 1998 book about genocide, but it was the 2004 Hollywood blockbuster, in which he was played by Don Cheadle, that brought him world fame.
The hotel manager at the time protected around 1,200 people from the violence after they had sought shelter.
More on the genocide in Rwanda:
video caption,
An estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days between April and July 1994.